deadeyedick wrote:This is what prompted my rebel comment above. I see peeps here all the time with their precious little dogs in shopping carts, strollers, even in there laps while driving, etc in places they don't belong like food courts, grocery stores and they always claim it's their service dog.
Even if it's a qualified and licensed service animal, they are not allowed to ride in shopping carts for any reason even if you put a blanket or bed in the shopping cart for the animal to sit in. This is a board of health stipulation.
They are allowed in resultants and eating establishments but they can't wander around or take a tours into the food preparation areas.
Health and sanitary issues aside, if the service animal requires the use of a shopping cart to get around the store, it's not a real service animal.
Not trying to be an A-hole on this issue it's just wrong for people to pretend that their little Muffy is a service animal. I've turned away people with their emotional support animals.
This is a real recreation of a sample discussion I've had with customers:
Me: Ma'am pets are not allowed in the store. Sorry.
Her: It's my emotional support dog (little chihuahua dog).
Me: Sorry, emotional support animals do not qualify as a service dog.
He: What do you want me to do with it? Leave it in the hot car to die?
Me: I would not recommend that, maybe you should have left it at home.
Her: Well he pees and craps on the floor when he's left alone.
(Seriously? Your dog is not potty trained but it should be allowed in a store that sells food? Pretty sure if the board of heath made a unannounced inspection and they saw dogs riding in shopping carts or piss and $hit on the floor, someone will be getting written up).
Other end of the spectrum:
Guy comes in with a huge Rottweiler (this breed has some stigma). The dog has a solid harness on it like you would see with a seeing eye dog but the guy is obviously not blind.
I don't question the guy. The dog just walked with him nice and calm. Was never distracted, just doing a service dog thing. After seeing him come in over many months and we had some rapport... I ask him (I cannot legally ask this question) "What is your disability and why such a big dog?" He has issues with vertigo and he needs a large dog that he can lean on to take his weight. If an episode happens she (his service dog) can pull him up to his feet if he falls down. THIS is a real example of a true service dog trained to do it's job.
Sure she also was an emotional support dog (most loving animals are) but her primary purpose was help to him get around at home and out in pubic. I use the past tense when talking about his dog since his dog passed away last year. He has another one but I haven't seen him around much in the past 6 months or so. Hopefully he's OK.
Kind of a long winded post but just sharing a couple of examples of what I would classify as a real service animal vs a family pet.