We find the ads everywhere! On our favorite social media platforms; Inside newspapers and magazines; Scattered throughout online advertising circulars for big box stores, grocery chains, even Amazon.com! These are the ads that sell a cape or a vest or some other piece of identification paraphernalia that gives pet owners the confidence to falsely claim their pets are service dogs! Once identified as indispensable service or guide dogs, those same treasured pets can become understandably terrified or even aggressive when accompanying their owners in busy settings like airports, train stations, fast food establishments, the crowded aisles of grocery and other stores, or virtually any other unfamiliar environment, and misbehave!
Nothing in the civil rights laws that allow us to bring our guide and service dogs into public settings requires our dogs to be certified in any way. It’s our dogs’ excellent training, along with the training we receive, ourselves, from experts and professionals in the field, and the specific tasks that our dogs are individually trained to perform for us, that qualify our dogs as guide and service dogs! There is neither a process nor any official evaluation that certifies a dog for guide or service work. Those fake “certifications,” that advertisers offer to sell pet owners, are meaningless!
Untrained and unauthorized pets can – and often do – present real threats to the safety of guide dog users and our legitimately trained guide and service dogs. And, when a business owner or store manager has experienced a few unpleasant incidents caused by falsely identified so-called, “service animals,” those same owners and managers may be reluctant to welcome even well-behaved and much needed guide dogs into their establishments and inside public venues.
Don’t make it easy for pet owners to break the law – and harder for guide and service dog users to travel independently and safely with our dogs! Report those ads every time you encounter them! Here’s how!
When you encounter advertising for capes or vests or I.D. cards or tags that make your pet appear to be certified as an emotional support animal or a service dog, report these misleading ads that encourage fraudulent behavior to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC has primary responsibility for determining whether specific advertising is false or misleading, and for taking action against the sponsors of these advertisements. To file a complaint with
the FTC, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov
Whether or not you are a guide or service dog user, Guide Dog Users, Inc. thanks you for your help. Please make the world a safer place for us and our guide dogs.