Dealing with phony service dogs is no walk in the park.
Because restaurants and other businesses are required by law to admit service animals, they could end up hosting an unruly pooch simply because it’s wearing an $11.99 service dog harness available on Amazon. And people who actually need service dogs, hampered by neighboring untrained dogs or grumpy business owners and feeling that laws about service dogs have been abused, might have more difficulty getting around.
That’s why Illinois might soon be cracking down on fake service dogs.
“When you have a misrepresentation of a dog that is represented as a service dog, that’s a public nuisance and could cause harm to the public,” said state Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat, who introduced a bill to criminalize intentionally misleading others about the service status of your pup.
Under the bill, a dog would have to be professionally trained in order to wear service animal gear or enter a building where only service animals are permitted. Otherwise, the pet owner could be subject to a substantial fine.
State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, a Naperville Democrat who opposed the bill, argued that it could be harmful to people who can’t afford service dog training. “People have access to animals that are functioning in their lives as service dogs,” she said.
Nevertheless, House Bill 3905 passed through the House Judiciary Criminal Committee. However, the fine was lowered to a maximum of $500, and the bill has an added stipulation: If passed, all fines would go to grants to help people afford service dog training.
Illinois is far from the first state to consider such legislation. By 2018, nearly two dozen states had passed legislation targeting fake service animals, with Minnesota and Arizona making it illegal to misrepresent services animals, imposing $100 and $250 fines, respectively.
When you’re out and about, it can be difficult to spot fake service animals because any dog, if properly trained, can be a legitimate service dog. These aren’t just the German shepherd guide dogs of the 1920s. Now, these dogs can be any breed, and they can help people who have trouble seeing, hearing, or getting around. There are also medical alert dogs (for those who get seizures or have severe allergies) and psychiatric service dogs (for people with post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, etc.). Emotional support dogs, on the other hand, don’t count, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
As Illinois has proved, service dogs are a remarkably contentious subject, with some arguing that people might need fake service animals and others saying they’re a problem.
“When we criticize service dog impostors in defense of real working dogs,” reads an article in Healthline, we often neglect “the person who has a legitimate need for a service dog but doesn’t have the resources to get one with the background and training of a ‘real’ service dog.”
On the other hand, one writer (and dog trainer) argues in Vice, “Conflating indistinguishable emotional support animals with service dogs means that a few people gain a minor benefit at the expense of the safety and security of disabled people.”
It looks like the Illinois bill might be able to address both sides of the argument: helping to provide for people who can’t afford training and protecting those who need to have service dogs by their side.
