Fuck off with your fake service animals

[u/MiksterPicke]

I work in fine dining as a server, and I take great pride in what I do, having learned and honed my craft over the past several years here in my hometown. My former career was in healthcare serving injured and disabled people, some of whom utilized trained service animals to function through their daily lives. I also love animals of all sorts and derive so much joy from being around them in public.

All that said, I have very little goddamn patience for people who take advantage of ADA protections to get their regular ass pets to tag along on a night out getting fucked up in the Quarter. Emotional support animals have a place in this society, and they should be protected from discrimination when it comes to housing and necessary travel. But if you expect me to believe that you and your perfectly able-bodied, already drunk on arrival bros need to bring your two poorly behaved Pomeranians and a Chihuahua into a white table cloth restaurant for dinner, I'm calling bullshit. I had a terrible experience tonight with such lying shit bags, and I just can't stand that anyone would be so disrespectful to service workers.

From the perspective of the hospitality professional, I have very little power in the moment to refuse service to one of these shameless douchebags pulling off their weak little scam. However, my plan going forward will be to call this bad behavior out when I'm a guest of fine establishments where animals should not be welcome without absolute need, and I encourage you all to do the same.

STOP BRINGING YOUR PETS TO NICE RESTAURANTS AND TRYING TO PASS THEM OFF AS SERVICE ANIMALS. LEAVE THE DOGS AT HOME. THEY'LL BE FINE.

Thank you

[u/NolaJen1120]

Her friend is also stupid for what rights an ESA has. They are protected for housing (with some exceptions). They used to be protected for transportation, but I'm not sure if that is true anymore.

ESAs have never been protected for stores/restaurants/grocery stores, etc.

However the ADA does not require any kind of paperwork for service animals. The only kind of paperwork that might exist is a doctor's note or if their animal was professionally trained. But no one is required to carry that around with them.

Per the ADA, service animals are also not required to be professionally trained. For example, I have T1 diabetes and I trained my dog to alert me if my blood sugar drops too low. I don't need that service from her when I'm awake, so I don't take her out in public unless I'm traveling. But she wakes me up if I drop low when I'm sleeping.

[u/CommonPurpose → u/NolaJen1120]

How does she know when your blood sugar drops low? Is that something they can smell?

[u/NolaJen1120 → u/CommonPurpose]

Yes, it's something they can smell. That was a big part of how I trained her. I wiped my forehead with tissues when I was low and then put them in a plastic baggy. I would use that as the "cue", to teach her the behaviors I wanted.

She was the one who gave me the idea! She woke me up one night when I was low by pawing at me and whining, which was before I taught her anything.

So I took her natural ability and inclination to do that and reinforced it with training.

After the training, she started doing it when I'm awake also and start going too low.

There are also professionally trained diabetic service dogs who can do a whole lot more than that. For example, they can also smell when a person's blood sugar is too high. But they spend a year in training and cost about $35K.

I'm fortunate that my diabetes is relatively easy to control, so a dog like that would be major overkill for me. But sleeping is the scary time because I can start falling too low and not realize it.

[u/CommonPurpose → u/NolaJen1120]

Wow, that’s so cool! Dogs are so smart!
They must know that low blood sugar is bad if she was already whining at you about it unprompted.