JUSTICE FOR FACEBULLY VICTIMS!: Sherry Bernstein "I basically called her friend a fraud and then could not back it up"

Sherry Bernstein

My dog walker announced tonight that she is hosting a party at a restaurant in a few weeks. She just found out that one of her guests has a newly acquired service dog for emotional support. It is a pit bull. The dog will be in the restaurant. I went on a rampage, telling her why pit bulls are a terrible choice for service dog, all about the nanny dog myth, the origin of the pit bull, etc. I am embarrassed to say I completely fell on my face when I could not answer the most relevant question - How can you tell a real service dog from a fake one? (I basically called her friend a fraud and then could not back it up.) Please advise.

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Rachel Simas Fraud or not, emotional support animals are not permitted in restaurants. Only dogs providing a physical service are considered true serive dogs that are allowed in public places. Inform the restaurant of the law and they will not allow the dog to stay.

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Rachel Simas The restaurant can ask two questions legally, is it a service animal and what service does it provide. If they say it provides emotional support they can legally refuse entry of the animal.

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Jeffrey Sloan If it's a pit bull there's almost zero chance that it could be a real service dog - such dogs take a long time to train and are not cheap. Many wash out of the training. But pit freaks can buy a vest online for a few bucks, and can get a genuine looking certificate and an ominous looking legal card for a few bucks more.

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James Hassinger You can not tell a service dog from a fake one but that does not matter, even service pit bulls have attacked people, Google service pit bull attacks

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James Hassinger Point is pit bulls kill, no matter the training or how much love they get, you can't train a pit bull not to kill

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Raechel Celeste Smith Glad you asked because I want to know, too.

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Rachel Simas Emotional support animals are only exempt to laws pertaining to taking animals on airplanes or when renting housing that isn't pet friendly. It does not allow the person to take their animal anywhere they would like and it does not make it a true service animal. You don't have to prove that it's fake, they're admitting everything you need to keep the dog out of the restaurant.

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James Hassinger Rachel the problem is there is NO proof to prove a dog is a service animal. No government ID, no medical doctors note, nothing. It's so bad that ANYONE can train a dog to be a service dog! Yes that's right: you can be a service dog trainer Rachel TODAY. There is no official license or schooling required to be a service dog trainer. Seriously search, go look up how to be a service dog trainer, you'll be in absolute shock how stupidly easy it is to be a "trainer" and make any dog a "service dog".

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Raechel Celeste Smith insane.

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James Hassinger It's beyond insane

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Sherry Bernstein I understand, and I appreciate the feedback. I am sick and tired of all the old ladies around here dragging their Maltese through Trader Joes for emotional support. I'm surprised the stores allow it. I am disappointed that there isn't something definitive identifying a real service animal.

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James Hassinger How can anyone think "gee, we should let service dogs go anywhere, but the people training the service dogs don't need any education or proof that they can train a dog, we will just take their word for it that the dog is trained". That's what the ADA does

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Rachel Simas I understand that, but in this case here there is no need to prove that its fake. They have already admitted it's an emotional support animal and the laws are plenty clear on that. Most pit bull owners can't answer the second question of what service does it provide without saying emotional support, and once they say that they have outed themselves that it's not a genuine service dog. That's the best she can do with the law the way it is.

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James Hassinger Sherry there are a few things you can watch out for, I believe it's on the 2012 update of the ADA service dog information. Growling or barking would disqualify a dog from being a service dog, I think there are some other things, you'll need to search for it

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Jeffrey Sloan I'm not worried about harmless little dogs. But having people being pulled around public spaces by maulers is the same thing as letting an escaped mental patient wave a loaded AK-47 around.

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James Hassinger Rachel is right if they said its emotional support then it's not a service dog and there's many places it can not go that service dogs can go

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Marty Johncox You should have kept your emotions in check. If someone is hostile to your message, the first thing they will do is try and discredit your message based on your delivery. As for telling the difference, a real service dog undergoes training and testing to do tasks that a person cannot do by themselves.

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Rachel Simas I've informed a couple of store managers of the law and what they can legally ask. I actually saw someone get asked to leave once after they answered by saying it was for emotional support. There's a group online, canine companions for independence, that provides legitimate service dogs and is working on trying to get the ada changed to eliminate a lot of the service dog fraud. It's insane how bad it's gotten with the fake vests and badges that people buy online. And unless people know the law and know what to ask they are usually too afraid to ask these people to leave. It creates problems for real service dogs too. We've seen dogs with years of training that cost thousands of dollars being attacked, or disabled people being refused access because too many people are lying just to take their dog anywhere they want.

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Rachel Q Acosta If I went on a aairkraft, and a pitbull was on it I would forfeit my ticket. Who is going to shoot the dog off of you if it goes nuts... hopefully a air m@rshal. I hate it

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James Hassinger Pit bulls are too big to be service dogs on planes:

"If a service animal is disruptive or too large to fit under the seat or at the passenger's feet without encroaching on another passenger's space or protruding into the aisle, it will need to travel in a kennel (provided by the passenger) in the cargo hold."

http://www.aa.com/.../specialAssistance/serviceAnimals.jsp

American Airlines Service Animal Policies On AA.com

American Airlines and American Eagle welcome...

AA.COM

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Rachel Simas Lol @ Rachel I dont think many people actually fly with their pits, but there was the person with the emotional support pig that got kicked off an airplane recently when the animal was causing too much trouble. like James said you can ask even legitimate service animals to leave if they bark, growl, go to the bathroom inside or are disruptive in any way.

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Amber A Maclin What about the other dogs there? If the pit isn't allowed because it's not a real service dog neither should the other dogs be, if they aren't service dogs.

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Rachel Q Acosta So to be clear emotional service dogs are not for autism right, and I'm just making sure someone can't say thier child has autism to permit a pb on a plane. know this is a sensitive subject but I just remmeber the autistic girls pb in the mall.

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Raechel Celeste Smith Did I mention, for a humanist, I loathe most humans?

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James Hassinger Rachel I don't think there is a pit bull small enough that could fit under a airplane seat or at the passengers feet without encroaching into another seat's space or into the aisle, it would have to be a very small dog like a Maltese or chihuahua

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Rachel Q Acosta Get a new dog walker, I don't expose myself to owners or pit sitters because it's a danger to myself if I go meet them and they have the pb in the car or whatever.

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Rachel Simas Recently the ada was amended to include autism for legitimate service. However it still has to provide certain physical services besides emotional support. the parents of the little girl going to see Santa claim the dog is to aid her when walking, which is covered, however there has been speculation if she actually needs this service or not. I'd have to be at my computer to look up the actual laws and what's covered for autism, but in some cases it can be a legitimate service animal and not just emotional support. The soldiers with ptsd though are emotional support animals and are not permitted to go into public places that are not pet friendly or that they do not have permission to be in.

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Jeffrey Sloan The idiot with a mauler in a bag is going to get somebody hurt.

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William Johnson Amber A Maclin, where did anyone say anything about other dogs?

Autism service dogs- I honesty don't get it. I get that some kids with autism could benefit by interacting with a dog, i could see emotional support, never a pit bull, though. But what task could a dog do, any dog, where a child with autism would need it?

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Rachel Q Acosta My thing is if a nutter made thier child say they were autistic, or idk it's hard not to be paranoid, I just wish we were not subjected to other people's stupidity in a daily basis.

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Rachel Simas The tasks I've seen are that some autistic children have muscle control issues and the dogs can aid in walking. Also, some autistic children have problems with suddenly bolting and can put themselves in harms way by walking into traffic and stuff and a properly trained service dog can be leashed to the child in a way to prevent them from bolting. You can Google some places that talk more about it and show exactly what the dogs do. As far as I know, if it's just for emotional support, autism or not, it's still not recognized as a true service dog.

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William Johnson The only thing I can think of would be to gaurd against wandering/ escape issues. You would think a herding dog would be best for that but the seemingly reputable autism service dog providers I have looked at use goldens and labs.

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William Johnson My son has balance issues. He's severely affected by autism, he could not control a dog. When we are walking he generally walks with his hand on my shoulder.

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William Johnson You are absolutely correct Rachel Simas, emotional support dogs are not covered under ADA.

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Amber A Maclin William Johnson disregard that. I misread I thought the dog walker was going to have other dogs at the restaurant besides the pit. If it's not a true service dog then it shouldn't be there.

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Raechel Celeste Smith Amber, so what if other dogs would be at the restaurant? Yea, it would be annoying, but why would anyone fear a...oh, let's say.. Beagle as a service dog? Hopefully, you can agree that the Pit is the life-threatening breed of concern. I don't care about "equal rights" when it comes to a killer dog breed. Let the harmless dogs show up while the Pit stays home; it's time people stop clumping all breeds with Pits, anyway. Individual breeds need to be recognized and reacted to accordingly; not in an "equal" way, but a sensible way.

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William Johnson I've been observing a service dog group on FB for over a month now. It's ridiculous, a bunch of people who are claustrophobic, over anxious, etc. And just can't face the world without their dog, they are going to ruin it for those who genuinely need a service dog to function. We need a national registry of these dogs showing they are certified to perform a task the disabled person cannot perform for themselves.

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Lisa Gaffney Pit bulls are not fit to be service or emotional support dogs. They are not fit to be in residential or community areas, period. Glad I blocked Amber, I can't even see her comments but she's obviously still up to her old ways.

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William Johnson I think all pets are emotional support. Why else have them?

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Raechel Celeste Smith Why else have a pet aside from emotional support? Um, to make a statement of course. Duh. To scare people with. To put tutus on and ...well, some people have sex with them, apparently.

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William Johnson Gee Raechel Celeste Smith, I don't think those are good reasons. Haha..