It’s difficult to go a day without running into Kenai residents enjoying their pets. Whether they are working wildfowl on the flats, keeping time with a baby carriage on the trail or patiently waiting for their owner to get out of the post office – dogs are everywhere.
As much as companion animals are welcomed, some animal lovers have taken it a step further, purchasing gear that suggests their pet is a service animal. Kacy Cooper of Cooper’s Wounded Bear Farm and Kennel says this does a great disservice to those who actually rely on service animals for assistance, because it diminishes the validity of the practice.
Kacy Cooper: “Real service dogs are amazing animals, and when people just say, oh it is a service dog because they want to take their dog on the plane or the bus or in the grocery store. I definitely don’t agree with that.”
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| Courtesy of Benjamin Earl Traylor |
Emotional support animals are a completely different animal with a completely different purpose. Because they provide benefit by their mere presence, they are not required to have rigorous training like a service dog – whose thousands of hours of training can cost upwards of $20,000.
A pack of untrained, or poorly trained dogs in public places, and on crowded airplanes has lead to significant problems for service dogs as the fake service dogs are giving the real ones a bad reputation.
The Americans with Disabilities Act limits the definition of a service animal to one that is trained to perform “work or tasks” in the aid of a disabled person. Those who register with Soldotna Animal Control get a financial bonus.
Soldotna Animal Control Marianne Clark: “The City of Soldotna will waive a dog license fee if the dog is certified by a recognized service animal institution.”
The key word is “recognized”. Online you find a den of deceit as webstories sell service dog vests, tags, harnesses and other paraphernalia, and websites claim to offer registry, certification, licenses, or other documentation for service dogs—all scams.
A certified service animal is an animal trained to assist someone with a disability and certified by a school or training facility for service animals to have completed such training. The Kenai Kennel Club offers a Canine Good Citizen certification after a formal process of testing and training good behavior, it’s a great foundation – but not enough to qualify a dog as a service animal.
Businesses are often confused about what is legal and what isn’t when it comes to service dogs, since they are protected by Alaska State law. The Soldotna Animal Control office reports that it gets a lot of complaints and questions about service animals, since the explosion of “therapy” and “emotional support” animals over the last few years.
Under the ADA, a service animal is a dog that has been trained to perform tasks or do work for the benefit of a person with a disability. The tasks or work the animal does must be directly related to the person’s disability, such alerting a handler of an impending seizures, reminding handlers to take medication, or helping those who are visually impaired to navigate safely.
It is important to note that a dog that is trained to calm a person suffering an anxiety attack due to post-traumatic stress disorder is considered a service dog, while a dog whose mere presence calms a person is not. The act specifically states, “dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.”
That same law allows businesses or individuals to ask a disabled person two questions about their service animals: Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? What task is the dog trained to perform? They cannot invade a person’s privacy by asking about the nature of the disability and no proof can be requested to prove a dog is a service animal.
Alaska State Law makes it a crime to prevent someone with a disability from being accompanied by, or receiving assistance from, a certified service animal in a public place. Alaska’s Human Rights Law defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity or a condition that may require the use of a prosthesis, special mobility equipment, or a service animal. The ADA covers psychiatric service animals, which can help their handlers manage mental and emotional disabilities by interrupting self-harming behaviors, checking spaces for intruders, or providing calming pressure during anxiety or panic attacks.
The ADA allows a public accommodation to exclude service animals if they poses a direct threat to health and safety. Dogs who are aggressively barking and snapping at other customers, demonstrate that they are not housebroken, or are out of control and the owner is unable or unwilling to effectively control it – all get sent to the dog house. Under the ADA and Alaska law, owners of public accommodations are not required to allow emotional support animals, only service animals.
Story as aired on KSRM News:
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