We need to stop the ‘fake service dog’ problem

People using ‘fake service dogs’ is a bigger problem than anyone realizes, and the fix is actually pretty simple.

We’ve all seen a service dog at least once in our lives. We’ve also seen fake service dogs, unknowingly, probably more.

A recent piece by Outside charted the growing problem of what is being deemed ‘fake service dogs’, which is a bad thing all around. When you hear that term, your mind probably goes to a person abusing a right that is afforded to those who have disabilities and need a service dog to perform tasks.

Instead, it appears that emotional support dogs for people with mental illness are causing this problem, which creates an unfair rift where one is seen as better than the other. Laws are dictating that service dogs are above support animals, and fine the latter for bringing dogs where they don’t belong. There’s a fair amount of people who simply want to bring dogs along when they shouldn’t, but closing the confusing gap between service dogs and support dogs is a good place to start weeding out those abusing the policies.

There could be a potential solution to all of this and that’s to just make places more pet-friendly. Rather than making vague laws that people can abuse or misinterpret, just make places other than parks more dog-friendly overall.

Wes Siler from Outside Magazine suggests as much and he’s not wrong. We don’t need to make every place dog-friendly, but the problem of fake service dogs could be curbed if the world becomes more open to simply accepting dogs.

One of the best suggestions that Wes makes is to have dog-friendly flights. We have things like this in other aspects of society, like movie screenings that are specifically for the hearing-impaired. It seems that the number of “watering hole” bars allowing dogs inside is on the rise, which is a step in the right direction. Fostering a community that is pro-dog is what we need to do in order to stop this largely underrated issue and help drop any stereotypes there might be about emotional support animals versus service dogs. There will always be those who simply want to bring dogs where they don’t belong. But

There will always be those who simply want to bring dogs where they don’t belong. But mental illness is an issue in America that gets brushed off far too easily. Bridging the gap between service and emotional support dogs —  through being a more dog-friendly society — could help everyone involved.