Service animals brought into restaurants- vest included

[greensinestro]

I took my daughter last night to Culver's, a somewhat new restaurant that is starting to pop up around South Florida. A woman was in there with her little tiny Chihuahua sized dog, and it was wearing a little vest that said it was a service animal.

Does anyone out there know what qualifies as a service animal? My feeling was this woman probably bought that little vest off of eBay or Amazon so that she could skirt the rules on what service animals really are.

I say this very often, and what I know about this is they have to be of a certain size and they have to be trained. This animal did not look like it was one that qualified for that.

[dalesys]

My opinion is that the laws and regulations for "Service Animals" were written in "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" form specifically so the Blanchettes could smuggle their pure poopers into grocery stores.

[csquared]

While larger breeds tend to be easier to train, size does not matter.
There are three main telltales that let you know that they are not a true service animal.
#3. They don't stay next to their owner.
#2. They bark unnecessarily.
And #1. They piss on the floor.

[Arcus]

Here are the updated regulations https://www.ada.gov/resources/servic...-requirements/

Just remember this. If you are not sure there are only 2 questions you can ask someone with a service animal.
1: Is this a service animal?
and
2: What tasks do they perform for you?

You can not ask for anything else. Many believe that real service animals have certifications that can be demanded, but there is no such system. If someone pulls out a certification trying to prove their dog is a service animal, they paid for that from some website.

There is also the difference between Service Animal and Emotional Support Animal. A Service Animal has the full protection under the law. They can not be kicked out of anywhere and can stay with their handler at all times. They should be treated the same as any other medically required device. The only legal protection for an Emotional Support Animal is that a landlord can not kick them out or require a pet deposit.

It is a crime for someone to try and pass off a pet or Emotional Support Animal as a Service Animal.

[greensinestro]

My feeling was, this woman lives alone and takes this dog everywhere she goes while passing it off as a service animal. It was wearing a vest, but was also checking out the floor for food droppings, which is probably something a real service animal doesn't do.