Policy and Advocacy
SUPPORT DISABLED VETERANS, CITIZENS, & BUSINESS OWNERS
The Problem & Our Proposed Solutions
An increasing number of injured and disabled Pennsylvanians, including military veterans, with service dogs face skepticism and criticism from business owners and other patrons due to bad experiences with pets that have been misrepresented as service animals. Unfortunately, this has happened to nearly all of our Veterans.
While business owners may understand what a service dog is, many are unaware of their rights and options when faced with a misrepresented ‘service dog.’ To better support them, we recommend the following:
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The federal and state laws that protect service dogs are different from the ones that apply to emotional support and other animals. For this reason, it would be helpful to create and implement a robust public education campaign around the rights and responsibilities that service animals have.
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We recommend Pennsylvania provide a free, voluntary patch and ID card to applicants with trained, accredited service dogs. The patch and card would be for visual recognition only and would not provide the animal or handler with any additional legal privileges or protections.
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In 2018, Gov. Wolf signed into law the Assistance and Service Animal Integrity Act. This statute protects housing communities by prohibiting false representation of a pet as a service animal for accommodation.
Unfortunately, this protection does not currently extend to restaurants, hotels, public transportation, or places of business. A more comprehensive law would deter people with non-service dogs from bringing them into business where they do not belong.
Help Us Make Change
Service dogs are a vital asset and few official resources have been dedicated to connect Veterans with service dogs. Properly training a service dog takes 2 years and costs $30,000+.
Team Foster bridges that gap to ensure that Veterans get access to high quality, life-saving service dogs. Your donation helps us reach that goal faster.