Oklahoma’s Growing Service/Support Animal Issues

While your experiences may vary, there is a growing issue between service animals and support animals across Oklahoma. Mainly, the difference in the two completely opposite classifications of them, and the owners wanting equal treatment of their pets in public places.

Seeing animals in restaurants is becoming so common, we're nearing a point where something is going to give.

Service Animals.

I think most people are pretty familiar with what service animals are. They aren't necessarily pets, but highly trained companions that perform specific tasks for those who need them.

Case and point, seeing-eye dogs. Their owners don't have vision, so the service dogs help them navigate the world around them.

There are service animals (overwhelmingly dogs) for a multitude of things we humans suffer from. Mobility issues, medical and daily assistance, retrieval tasks, and emotional support.

Yes, there are emotional support service animals, but they're overwhelmingly classified as psychiatric aid animals for those with severe anxiety, depression, PTSD, and a ton of other mental issues.

These animals are allowed by the ADA, backed by federal law, to be in every establishment in America.

Emotional Support Animals.

At some point in the last decade, people started claiming their pets as emotional support animals, insisting they be allowed to go everywhere with them, regardless of pet rules.

The problem with that is, since "Service Animal" and "Support Animal" vests and such for pets are so easily purchased from outlets like Amazon these days, everyone wants what they consider "special access" for their regular pets.

It's a lot like using grandma's handicap placard to get better parking at the grocery store. Highly illegal and increasingly common.

Example.

Months ago, we were having a bro's lunch at one of the burger places in town when a furry little puppy started running between tables as we ate. It was adorable in its little "Service Animal" vest, but it was very apparent this was someone's little pet and not a service animal.

Service animals don't run away from their owners unless it's to fetch help, at which point it wouldn't be stopping by every table for scratches before ultimately dropping solids on the floor under the corner booth.

Feeling embarrassed, the owner took the dog and fled the restaurant, leaving all of us to smell what the poor, less-than-minimum-wage waitstaff had to clean up.

In the months since, having been to all corners of the state, even I've noticed how common it is becoming for people to bring their pets into restaurants and stores with stolen valor Service Animal gear on their regular old pets.

The Hurdle.

You may have seen one of the hundreds of discussions about support vs. service animals on social media. It's a topic that seems to come up quite often, and there's one huge hurdle that keeps gatekeeping the necessity of it all.

While you or a business is allowed to ask if an animal is a service animal, you're not allowed to ask for any sort of proof. By law, you have to take the word of the pet owner.

As such, anyone who wishes for their pets to be by their side everywhere they go, all they need to do is lie about it.