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Comment by iaabtpbtpnn | Hacker News Reader

One of the major points in the article is that there are no papers, and even if there were, the law doesn't require the owner to explain himself beyond saying what specific task the dog is trained to do.

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It's quite likely that just asking that one question would be enough to screen out most fake service dogs. An ESA has not been trained to do any task and an answer along the lines of "It's been trained to comfort me." does not meet the ADA definition.

>just asking that one question would be enough to screen out most fake service dogs

This seems to be true. About a week ago I witnessed my boss question someone on if their dog was a service animal. He was adamant that it was but his demeanor betrayed himself.

I never saw someone get so maliciously defensive before, the person had to be told to leave because of his attitude from that point on. He actually called back and threatened my boss (on voicemail!) some time after leaving.

That one simple question blew him out of the water. Dog seemed nice despite his owner, but it didn't seem to be doing anything but dogging about.

And it is forbidden to ask more than if the individual has a disability and what task the dog is trained to perform. There can be nothing more discussed and denial of service to a disabled individual who is accompanied by a service dog (not the same as an ESA) comes with a huge fine but terrible public relations when it hits social media.

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