B.C. law plans to rein in fake service animals
Vancouver • They may continue to overrun grocery stores and airplane cabins in the rest of the continent, but a new provincial law is declaring fake service animals will no longer be welcome in British Columbia.
“I think it’s a game changer and a really bold move on the part of the government,” said William Thornton, co-founder of B.C. Guide Dog Services.
The Guide Dog and Service Dog Act, which had its second reading in the B.C. legislature Monday, would provide the province’s guide-dog owners with government issued-identification, similar to a driver’s licence.
B.C.’s current system, which uses wallet-cards issued by certified guide dog training facilities, has found itself wide open to abuse in recent years.
More and more pet owners have equipped their dogs with unlicensed “service dog” capes and fraudulent identification. Business owners, wary of confrontation or legal trouble, are often afraid to intervene.
Laura Watamanuk, executive director of the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society, said she frequently receives calls reporting suspicious activity, such as “service dogs” barking continually or sitting on chairs at restaurants. “We receive calls from transit, public libraries, restaurants, you name it, it’s regular,” she said.
The uncertified dogs will sometimes be backed by doctors’ notes, but Ms. Watamanuk warned “doctors don’t have the expertise to determine if that dog is of good enough behaviour to be out in public.”
Online, a cottage industry has boomed, offering service dog apparel and “no-dispute” service dog IDs.
An eBay seller of homemade “certified service dog cards” boasts “my dog flies on all major airlines with me at no charge, as well as stays in all the hotels with me at no charge.”
At FreeMyPaws.com, meanwhile, an ID card kit goes for $70, while an official-looking service dog cape costs $20.
Social media across North America abound with images of “service dogs,” wearing pink cowboy hats, defecating in airplane aisles or getting into fights with other uncertified service dogs. In a recent post to Reddit, a U.S. university student described sitting through a lecture while enduring an alleged service dog that “constantly whines and jumps up onto people’s desks.”
The trend has also hit Hollywood. Canadian-born actor Ryan Gosling and Man of
Steel star Henry Cavill, among others, are known to fly with uncertified “emotional support dogs.”
Mr. Thornton said he rarely visits downtown Vancouver without spotting an uncertified service dog,
He outlines a few telltale signs to spot a “fraudulent” dog: The animal will be misbehaving, its cape will say “threatening things” like “legal access” or “service dog,” and the owner will become unusually loud and defensive when questioned.
“It’s just seemed to explode,” said Lynn Ral off, head of the Guide Dog Users of Canada’s recently formed fake service dog committee.
Fake service dogs are giving real guide dogs a bad name and undoing “all the fighting we’ve done,” added Ms. Ral off, who is blind and has a black Labrador guide dog.
Not only that, they are filling public places with untrained dogs prone to attack the legitimate guide dogs, she says. “This is a very pet-oriented society … so when people see a legitimate dog they think, ‘Well, why not my dog?’ ” she said. “But they don’t realize the ramifications.”
In addition to controlling guide-dog certification, the new B.C. act would allow guide dogs the ability to stay with their owners after their retirement even if they live in a pet-free residence.
And, while prior B.C. disability laws governed “service animals,” the new act narrows the field strictly to “service dogs.” Along with the rise of fake service dogs has come a wave of non-canine service animals, such parrots, capuchin monkeys, pot-bellied pigs and even miniature horses.