By Joshua Skinner
Published: Nov. 29, 2022 at 8:43 PM EST|Updated: 17 hours ago
MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) - You've probably seen them at the mall, in the grocery store, or at the airport: service dogs helping their owners with various tasks.
But you've also probably noticed some of those "service dogs" don't act like service dogs. That's because sometimes, they're not.
Rumer L'armee and her service dog Kenai are attached at the hip.
"He is my seizure alert service dog," L'armee said.
Kenai goes wherever L'armee goes.
"I can take him into courthouses,' L'armee said. "I can take him into malls, restaurants, grocery stores, anywhere that is not considered a sterile environment."
The cost to train a service dog like Kenai can easily run upwards of $30,000. But a growing obstacle to training is actually other dogs in service vests that aren't service dogs.
"There's a lot of those online scams for people to buy vests and say they have an emotional support animal that can go in public or that they even have a service dog to go in public," said Stephanie Shaw, owner of Shawshack K9 and dog trainer.
Naturally, the system is abused by people to get pets into places they're generally not allowed.
Due to this, the FAA rolled back its Emotional Support Animal policy in late 2020, allowing airlines to crack down on emotional support pigs, ducks, and rats.
But not every legislative body is that strict.
The State of Texas has no delineation between service dogs and emotional support dogs; however, the Americans with Disabilities Act does.
"A service dog has to be able to perform a task to mitigate a handler's disability, which also means that the handler has to have a disability," Shaw said.
A poor encounter with an untrained service dog could scar a trained one, possibly causing it to be retired or need to be retrained.
L'armee said the best solution is to be respectful of people with service animals and learn how taking advantage of the process makes life difficult for handlers.
"It makes me angry more than anything because I invest my time into my dog," L'armee said.
www.cbs7.com
Published: Nov. 29, 2022 at 8:43 PM EST|Updated: 17 hours ago
MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) - You've probably seen them at the mall, in the grocery store, or at the airport: service dogs helping their owners with various tasks.
But you've also probably noticed some of those "service dogs" don't act like service dogs. That's because sometimes, they're not.
Rumer L'armee and her service dog Kenai are attached at the hip.
"He is my seizure alert service dog," L'armee said.
Kenai goes wherever L'armee goes.
"I can take him into courthouses,' L'armee said. "I can take him into malls, restaurants, grocery stores, anywhere that is not considered a sterile environment."
The cost to train a service dog like Kenai can easily run upwards of $30,000. But a growing obstacle to training is actually other dogs in service vests that aren't service dogs.
"There's a lot of those online scams for people to buy vests and say they have an emotional support animal that can go in public or that they even have a service dog to go in public," said Stephanie Shaw, owner of Shawshack K9 and dog trainer.
Naturally, the system is abused by people to get pets into places they're generally not allowed.
Due to this, the FAA rolled back its Emotional Support Animal policy in late 2020, allowing airlines to crack down on emotional support pigs, ducks, and rats.
But not every legislative body is that strict.
The State of Texas has no delineation between service dogs and emotional support dogs; however, the Americans with Disabilities Act does.
"A service dog has to be able to perform a task to mitigate a handler's disability, which also means that the handler has to have a disability," Shaw said.
A poor encounter with an untrained service dog could scar a trained one, possibly causing it to be retired or need to be retrained.
L'armee said the best solution is to be respectful of people with service animals and learn how taking advantage of the process makes life difficult for handlers.
"It makes me angry more than anything because I invest my time into my dog," L'armee said.
Handlers warn about problems with non-service dogs
The rise of emotional support animals has created confusion about what qualifies as a 'service dog'.
www.cbs7.com
