Texas has increased the penalty for claiming that an animal is a service animal

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Back in High School, my debate coach/civics teacher taught me these words of wisdom:

No true Texan can sleep soundly in their bed while the Texas legislature is in session.

The Texas legis had previously made it illegal to represent that an animal is a service animal unless some conditions are met. The new law has increased the penalty for violating this law.

Link to tweet

https://www.khou.com/article/life/animals/texas-law-service-animal-emotional-support-dog/285-be7eb241-eb8e-4033-a6e8-197994a14ad3

House Bill 4164 increases the penalty for people misrepresenting their dogs as service animals when they are not specially trained. Fines for violating the law have increased from $300 to $1,000 and 30 hours of community service.

Advocates say they fought for the change to protect people with disabilities and their service animals.

“In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of non-disabled people that represent their pets as service animals," explained Shelby Bobosky with the Texas Humane Legislation Network. “It’s really evident when you bring an untrained or misbehaved dog into a restaurant and you can see them jumping on a table, barking -- that is definitely not a service animal.”

While some public establishments do allow non-service animals, including emotional support dogs, they're not required to under the law.

There is now a definition of what is a service animal

What is a service animal?
Under Title II and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual or other mental disability.

Examples of service dogs:

Providing physical support and assistance for people who use wheelchairs or have other mobility disabilities.
Assisting individuals who are blind or have low vision with navigation.
Alerting a person with hearing loss to a sound.
Detecting an oncoming seizure and assisting an individual during the seizure.
Reminding a person to take medication.
Helping individuals with psychiatric and neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors.
Helping people with PTSD by applying pressure to alleviate anxiety, nudging to interrupt flashbacks or licking their hand to alert them to an oncoming panic attack.

The article goes on to define and discuss emotional support and therapy animals. Emotional support and therapy dogs are not service dogs unless these criterion are met:

Is the animal required because of a disability?
What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?
If the answer to question 1 is yes and the tasks listed for question 2 are directly related to the person’s disability, then the animal is a service animal.

This law took effect on September 1, 2023.

[MichMan]

1. Good. Too many people abusing the system

Airlines cracked down a while ago.

[NBachers]

2. I have no problem with this.

[ShazzieB]

3. Sounds reasonable to me.

I've heard too many stories about people passing off their untrained, badly behaved, and/or poorly socialized mutts as service dogs just so they could take them places where they didn't belong. And don't get me started on people claiming everything from a peacock to a boa constrictor as an emotional support animal. The whole thing has gotten out of hand. Texas is far from the only state that has enacted legislation to address these issues.

The Texas state legislature has been doing some awful things lately, but I don't think this is one of them.

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. Count on the TX legislature to have their priorities in order n/t