Bill Would Outlaw Misrepresenting Your Pet As Service Animal

If the bill becomes law, lying about your pet being a service animal in order to stay in a public place could land you up to 30 hours of community service.

It’s difficult to say how often pet owners fudge the truth on this. (There’s no real data tracking service pet misrepresentation.)

But anecdotally at least, it does seem to be a thing. Katelyn Bouchard is the assistant manager at Small Point Cafe in Providence. She said customers will sometimes come in with a dog and claim that it’s a service dog. When asked for proof, they’ll point to the dog’s vest.

“You can buy those on Amazon,” Bouchard said. “That doesn’t indicate they’re a service dog.”

The cafe has posted signs asking customers to leave their dogs at home or outside, Bouchard said. Restaurants have to make sure they’re sanitary, she said, even if it risks making them seem like animal-haters.

“If I could I would have every animal in existence in this cafe,” Bouchard said. “But there are sanitary reasons. I don’t know how the cat cafes get away with it.”

A House committee will consider the bill Wednesday evening.