{"id":967,"date":"2015-02-04T23:41:22","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T23:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/?p=967"},"modified":"2015-02-04T23:43:09","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T23:43:09","slug":"imposter-service-dogs-fiesty-comfort-animals-it-only-takes-a-few-bad-apples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/animal-policy\/imposter-service-dogs-fiesty-comfort-animals-it-only-takes-a-few-bad-apples\/","title":{"rendered":"Imposter Service Dogs! Fiesty Comfort Animals! (It Only Takes a Few Bad Apples)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When somebody brings their untrained &#8220;comfort animal&#8221; to a place pets are not typically allowed and the inevitable disaster ensues, our first reaction is often a grin, because &#8212; lets&#8217; face it &#8212; these stories can be pretty amusing.\u00a0Unfortunately, tales of <a title=\"Airline: 'Emotional support' pig kicked off flight for being disruptive\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2014\/11\/30\/travel\/emotional-support-pig-booted-flight\/\" target=\"_blank\">out-of-control comfort pets<\/a> and <a title=\"Fake service animals is 'very frustrating' issue, store says\" href=\"http:\/\/www.katu.com\/news\/local\/Pushing-back-against-fake-service-animals-257595691.html\" target=\"_blank\">fake <\/a>\u00a0<a title=\"Impostor service animals posing growing problem\" href=\"http:\/\/www.utsandiego.com\/news\/2013\/oct\/09\/impostor-service-animals-posing-growing-problem\/all\/\" target=\"_blank\">service<\/a> animals also have a very real insidious effect:\u00a0<a style=\"line-height: 1.5;\" title=\"Marathon bombing survivor says service dog got her kicked out of store\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wcvb.com\/news\/marathon-bombing-survivor-says-service-dog-got-her-kicked-out-of-store\/26907502\" target=\"_blank\">people start questioning the legitimacy of the service animals they come across<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is <a title=\"Emotional support animals have some uneasy\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/metro\/2015\/02\/03\/animals\/nUfrOaFgP5L64AboQ9Yk0O\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\">especially troubling<\/a>\u00a0for the growing number of people without visible disabilities or injuries who receive assistance from service animals, or those with non-standard service animals (e.g. <a title=\"Yes, My Chihuahua Is a Service Dog\u2026  and a Reasonable Accommodation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.asanet.org\/footnotes\/apr11\/servicedog_0411.html\" target=\"_blank\">a Chihuahua<\/a>), who are more likely to feel the &#8220;raised eyebrow&#8221; that questions their honor and legitimacy.<\/p>\n<p>Service animals are quite simply, amazing, and the <a title=\"COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SERVICE ANIMALS IN PLACES OF BUSINESS\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ada.gov\/qasrvc.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Americans With Disability Act recognizes<\/a>\u00a0and protects the essential role\u00a0service animals play in our society:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 11.5px; padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px;\"><em>Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), privately owned businesses that serve the public, such as restaurants, hotels, retail stores, taxicabs, theaters, concert halls, and sports facilities, are prohibited from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. The ADA requires these businesses to allow people with disabilities to bring their service animals onto business premises in whatever areas customers are generally allowed.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>We follow animal trends at NAIA, and while we can safely say there is no <em>epidemic<\/em> of out-of-control comfort animals and imposter service animals, it is definitely a growing issue that we take seriously, and one we will work to find positive solutions for!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_969\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-969\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-969 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ExeterBob.jpg\" alt=\"ExeterBob\" width=\"250\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ExeterBob.jpg 250w, https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ExeterBob-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-969\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><center>Exeter, a service dog <a title=\"Graduate Stories\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cci.org\/site\/c.cdKGIRNqEmG\/b.8853259\/k.AD08\/Graduate_Stories.htm\" target=\"_blank\">trained by CCI<\/a>, helps Bob cope with the physical and emotional symptoms of Huntington&#8217;s disease.<\/center><\/p><\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We follow animal trends at NAIA, and while we can safely say there is no epidemic of out-of-control comfort animals and imposter service animals, it is definitely a growing issue that we take seriously, and one we will work to find positive solutions for!<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}