What Proof Is Required For A Service Dog

SERVICE DOGS AND THE LAW

Past: Kevin East. McCarthy, Principal Annotator

QUESTIONS Does Connecticut police force or the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require proof that a canis familiaris is being used to assist a person with disabilities to be afforded the protections allowed service dogs and their owners? Is there any Connecticut law on falsely claiming that an animal is a service dog? Practice other states accept such laws? Has at that place been any Connecticut legislation on registering service dogs?

This study addresses merely the ADA and not other federal laws, notably the Fair Housing Act, that have provisions regarding the apply of service dogs.

SUMMARY

Connecticut police force requires public accommodations to permit people who are blind, deafened, or mobility impaired to use service dogs to help them. The ADA has similar provisions just covers a wider range of disabilities, including mental and psychiatric disabilities.

Connecticut law does non require a person using a service canis familiaris to prove that the canis familiaris is being used to help with disabilities in order to be afforded the protections allowed to people using service dogs. Similar other dogs, the service dog must exist licensed and have a tag. If the dog has not been previously licensed, the owner must present documentation that the dog has been accordingly trained as a service domestic dog to get a license. The ADA also does non require such proof and its implementing regulations limit the types of questions that people working in the private and public facilities it covers can inquire about the dog or its owner.

There is no Connecticut law on falsely claiming that a domestic dog is a service domestic dog. California, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Washington take such laws. In most cases, the offense is a misdemeanor. In some cases, these laws appear to disharmonize with the ADA, for example past limiting the apply of service dogs to people with physical disabilities. To the extent there is a conflict, information technology would appear that the ADA would supercede the state law.

We have found no Connecticut legislation on establishing a service dog registry.

PROTECTIONS FOR SERVICE DOGS

Connecticut

Connecticut police force has ii provisions ( C GS �� 46a-44 and 46a-64 ) protecting people with specified disabilities who use guide or help dogs to help them, too as people who train dogs for these purposes. (Generally, in Connecticut police force, guide dogs help bullheaded people, while assistance dogs help deaf or mobility-dumb people.)

CGS � 46a-44 entitles any blind, deaf, or mobility-impaired person using, or any person grooming, a guide or assistance dog to:

1. enter any public building or identify of public accommodation that caters or offers its services or facilities or goods to the general public (e.k., a restaurant or hotel);

2. keep the dog with him or her at all times at no extra charge;

iii. travel on a railroad train or on any other mode of public transportation; and

4. visit, with his or her dog, (a) any place of public adaptation or (b) a dwelling as a guest of a lawful occupant.

CGS � 46a-64 prohibits public accommodations from denying full and equal access to any bullheaded, deaf, or mobility-dumb person or any person training a guide or aid dog, accompanied by his or her dog. The facility must mail service a sign saying that anyone with these disabilities may enter with a domestic dog wearing a harness or an orange-colored leash and collar. The person with disabilities or who is training the domestic dog is liable for whatever harm the dog does to the premises or facilities.

To be covered by these provisions, a person training the dog must exist employed and authorized to engage in preparation activities by a guide or assistance canis familiaris organisation that complies with criteria for membership in a professional association of guide domestic dog or assistance dog schools. The trainer too must carry photographic identification indicating this employment and dominance.

For both provisions, the domestic dog must (one) be in the directly custody of the person with disabilities or the trainer and (2) wear a harness or an orange-colored leash and neckband. CGS � 46a-44 additionally covers a person who volunteers for such organizations that authorizes volunteers to raise such dogs and appropriately identifies the dog with:

1. tags,

2. ear tattoos,

three. identifying bandanas (on puppies),

4. identifying coats (on adult dogs), or

five. leashes and collars.

ADA

The ADA prohibits discrimination against, and ensures equal opportunity for, persons with disabilities in public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and country and local government services. Under the deed, a person with a disability is someone who (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, (2) has a history or record of such an harm, or (3) is perceived by others as having such an impairment. Public accommodations are businesses that are generally open up to the public, such as stores, restaurants, theaters, schools, and day intendance and recreation facilities.

U.S. Department of Justice regulations implementing the ADA require public accommodations to modify their policies, practices, or procedures to permit an individual with a inability to use a service animal (28 CFR � 36.302(c)(one)). The regulations define a service animal as a canis familiaris that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities (28 CFR � 35.104, 28 CFR � 36.104). The disability can be physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or mental. In add-on to guiding people who are bullheaded, service animals can warning a person who is deaf, pull a wheelchair, alert and protect a person who is having a seizure, remind a person with mental disease to take prescribed medications, calm a person with Mail Traumatic Stress Disorder during an anxiety attack, or perform other duties. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be straight related to the person ' s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.

Under the ADA, service dogs must be harnessed, leashed, or tethered, unless these devices interfere with the dog ' due south work or the individual ' s inability prevents using these devices. A person with a disability cannot be asked to remove his or her service dog from the premises unless: (one) the dog is out of control and the handler does not accept constructive activity to control it or (2) the dog is not housebroken.

PROVING THAT A Domestic dog IS BEING USED TO Aid PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Connecticut Police

Connecticut law does not require proof that a dog is existence used to help a person with disabilities in order for it and its possessor to be afforded the protections immune under the law. All the same, CGS � 22-345 requires a bullheaded or deaf person or person with mobility impairments who owns or keeps a guide dog to obtain a dog license and tag from the town clerk where the domestic dog is endemic or kept. If the clerk has not previously licensed the dog, the owner must present written prove that the canis familiaris is trained and educated and intended in fact to perform guide service for the possessor. Any person who has a canis familiaris placed with him or her temporarily by a nonprofit organization that trains or educates guide dogs must obtain a domestic dog license and tag from the town clerk where the dog is endemic. The person who temporarily cares for the dog must nowadays written evidence that the system placed the dog with him or her.

Federal Police

Nether the ADA regulations, staff at facilities subject to the ADA can ask only two questions: (ane) is the domestic dog a service brute required considering of a disability and (2) what work or task has the canis familiaris been trained to perform? Staff cannot ask about the person ' s inability, require medical documentation, or ask that the domestic dog demonstrate its ability to perform the piece of work or task. Nor can they require documentation, such as proof that the dog has been certified, trained, or licensed equally a service dog (28 CFR � 35.136, 28 CFR � 36.302). With regard to facilities covered by the ADA, information technology appears that, under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, these provisions would supplant country laws requiring dog owners to provide such documentation.

Farther data on the ADA regulations is bachelor at http://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm .

MAKING Imitation CLAIMS

In that location is no Connecticut law on making claims that an animal is a service dog, simply 14 other states have such laws.

California

Anyone who knowingly and fraudulently represents himself or herself, through verbal or written notice, to be the possessor or trainer of dog licensed as, to be qualified as, or identified as, a guide, point, or service canis familiaris is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable past imprisonment in the county jail for upwards to half dozen months, by a fine of upwards to $ane,000, or both ( Cal. Penal Cod east � 365.7 ).

Idaho

Whatsoever person who does not have a disability or is not existence trained to assist disabled persons who uses an help domestic dog in an attempt to gain treatment or benefits as a disabled person is guilty of a misdemeanor ( Idaho Code � 18-5811A ) .

Kansas

It is a class A misdemeanor for whatever person to represent that he or she (1) has the correct to be accompanied by an assistance or therapy dog or (two) has a inability for the purpose of acquiring an assistance canis familiaris unless he or she has a disability ( Kan. Stat. Ann. � 39-1112 ).

Maine

A person who fits a canis familiaris with a harness, collar, belong, or sign of the type commonly used by bullheaded or disabled persons to represent that the dog is a service domestic dog when the domestic dog (ane) has not received the blazon of training that guide dogs normally receive or (ii) does not meet the definition of "service dog" tin be fined up to $500 ( 17 Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. � 1314-A ).

Michigan

A person who is not deaf, audibly impaired, or otherwise physically express may not apply or possess a dog that is wearing a blaze orange leash and collar or harness in any public identify. Violation is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of non more than $x ( Mich. Code � 752.61 - 63 ).

Missouri

Any person who knowingly impersonates a person with a disability for the purpose of receiving the accommodations regarding service dogs nether the ADA is guilty of a class C misdemeanor and is likewise civilly liable for the amount of any actual damages resulting from the impersonation. Whatsoever second or subsequent violation of this section is a class B misdemeanor ( V. A. K. S. � 209.204 ).

Nebraska

The employ of a guide domestic dog by someone who is not bullheaded is a Course III misdemeanor ( Neb. Rev. St. � 28-1313 ).

Nevada

Whatever person who is not blind or deaf, or has no other type of concrete inability who uses a service animal is guilty of a misdemeanor ( Nev. Rev. Stat. � 426.510 ) . In addition, it is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 for a person to fraudulently misrepresent an animal as a service beast or service animal-in- preparation ( Nev. Rev. Stat. � 426.805 ) .

New Hampshire

It is unlawful for whatsoever person to fit an animal with a (1) collar, leash, or harness of the blazon which represents that the creature is a service creature or (2) service fauna tag if in fact the animal is not and to thus use it to misrepresent the person ' due south physical status ( N.H. Rev. Stat. � 167-D:8 ) . Violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor ( Due north.H. Rev. Stat. � 167-D:x ).

New Jersey

Anyone who fits a dog with a harness of the type usually used by blind persons to represent that their canis familiaris is a guide dog when in fact it is non trained equally a guide dog is subject to a $100 to $500 fine ( North.J. Stat. Ann. �ten:five-29.5 ) .

New United mexican states

New Mexico passed legislation in 2013 making it a misdemeanor to knowingly falsely merits that a canis familiaris is a "qualified service domestic dog." A qualified service domestic dog is one that has been trained or is beingness trained to work or perform tasks to benefit an private with a disability who has a concrete or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more than major life activities. The definition excludes emotional back up, comfort, and therapy dogs, which exercise non work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability and does not accompany the individual at all times ( N.Thou. Stat � 28-11-half-dozen ).

New York

It is a violation for anyone to knowingly affix to any dog whatever false or improper special tag for identifying guide, service, or hearing dogs. A first offense is punishable by a fine of non less than $25. A second criminal offense within 5 years is punishable by a fine of not less than $50 and a 3rd offense within five years is punishable by a fine of not less than $100, imprisonment for non more than than xv days, or both ( Northward.Y. Agric. & Mkts. Police force � 118 ).

North Carolina

It is a class 3 misdemeanor to disguise a dog every bit an assist dog ( Northward.C. Gen. Stat. � 168-4.five ) .

Texas

A person who uses an assistance animal with the type of harness or leash unremarkably used past persons with disabilities to represent that his or her animal is a particularly trained aid animal when non trained as such is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of upward to $200 ( Tex. Human being Resources Code � 121.006 ).

Utah

A person is guilty of a class B misdemeanor if he or she intentionally and knowingly (1) falsely represents to another person that an brute is a service animal or (ii) misrepresents a material fact to a health intendance provider to obtain the documentation from the provider required to designate an animal as a service fauna ( Utah Code Ann. 1953 � 62A-5b-106 ).

Washington

Information technology is a misdemeanor for any pedestrian who is not totally or partially blind, hearing impaired, or otherwise physically disabled to use a guide canis familiaris or other service brute in any public accommodation or means of transportation to secure the rights and privileges afforded to physically disabled people ( West's Rev. Lawmaking Wash. � 70.84.060 ).

KM:ts

Source: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2014/rpt/2014-R-0025.htm

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