Fake Service Animals California
It is a misdemeanor offense to pretend your pet is a service animal in California.
Fake service animals california. Are you an owner of an assistance animal. Badly behaved fake service dogs are hugely damaging to public perceptions of service animals. Three months later on April 27 2012 Jeremiah Eskew-Shahan age 1 was killed by his grandmothers therapy dog in Henderson.
About a dozen states are considering legislation to crack down on fake service animals. Polsky on February 26 2014. This was not a proposal for a fake service dog law but an exploration of the need for one.
California has long addressed the issue. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring recently filed suit in Madison County against Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers a company that describes itself as selling highly trained service animals that assist with a variety of tasks including diabetic alerts according to The. California has the toughest laws regarding fake service animals.
In California for instance it is a misdemeanor to falsely and knowingly claim that you are the owner or trainer of a service animal. About a third of the states have enacted anti-fake service animal. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the persons disability.
Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA. Still that doesnt seem to stop some people from trying to game the system. In 2014 the New Yorkers Patricia Marx gallivanted freely around the city with five successive fake ESA creatures including a snake an alpaca and a pig named Daphne demonstrating how easy.
Businesses have been dealing for years with the hassles of accommodating customers and employees with service animals. In California anyone caught using a fake service animal could be fined up to 1000 and imprisoned for six months. Misrepresentation includes creating or providing false documents that state an animal is a service animal as well as the use of fake service dog vests collars or harnesses.