Fake Service Dogs Cause Real Harm

Some people think it’s okay to put a “service dog” vest on a companion dog, but ironically that’s the problem–lack of thought. With love, I’m here to say IT’S NOT OKAY; it’s wrong morally and ethically. In California, passing off a companion animal as a service dog is a misdemeanor with up to 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Penalties are more severe federally, especially when it comes to air travel, with fines up to $10,000 and 5 years in prison. But it shouldn’t take threats of fines and imprisonment for people to take service dogs seriously. 

We might reflect on how we could be better allies to the Disability Community. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 billion people, about 16% of the global population, currently experience significant disability. This group already faces countless challenges, including ableism, a form of discrimination that gets overlooked despite Disabled being the only minority group literally everyone holds the potential to join at any moment. 

When someone falsely portrays a pet dog as a service dog, the harm is immediate. Not abstract. That harm falls on people with disabilities, as well as their legitimate service dogs. An already-vulnerable system relied on for survival gets weakened. Service dog work is threatened and even ruined by imposters, some of which are outright aggressive and dangerous. Public skepticism grows. Disabled people endure more invasive questions, unfair scrutiny, and denial of lawful access. 

Too often, police are wrongly called to report a service dog team. (Handlers call to report discrimination less frequently.) This wastes resources, including tax dollars, and businesses suffer significant legal and reputational harm. It’s relevant that people with disabilities are already more likely to interact with law enforcement because they are more likely to be victims of crime, and experience miscommunications or misunderstandings. Also, according to research by the Ruderman Family Foundation, people with disabilities are about 30-50% more likely to be subjected to use of force and/ or killed by law enforcement. 

Again, said with love, we need to understand that falsely claiming service dog status isn’t okay. It’s actually entitled, oblivious, and exploitative. It doesn’t matter if someone didn’t know or didn’t mean to cause harm. The good news is that we can all continue to learn, grow, and join in better advocacy and allyship. We can be part of the solution instead of the problem.