Why do you write "faking" in quotes when you presented a scenario as someone who faked it for convenience sake, not because they needed the dog's assistance or that the dog was trained to assist them? Because if she actually did need assistance, and it really was trained to assist her, it wouldn't be a problem.
Of course people who are sick of other people's selfishness affecting their ability to go out and do normal things that normal healthy people get to do unassisted any time they feel like are upset about it.
I wasn't referring to the case in that scenario I mentioned. Shockingly, I do know more than one person. I was referring to an entirely different case, in which I have no direct knowledge if the dog was a service dog or not. Well, strike that. I know the dog isn't a service dog. What the owner did was fly the dog on a plane, and for all I know, she went through all the right steps to get the dog declared an ESD. I saw her being lambasted for "faking" a SD, I put that word in quotes because I do not personally know the truth of the matter. Nor do I care that much, it's not my business, but I don't like to see people hammered on that way. As I pointed out, I don't like bullying.
My rebel point of view, again, is that I don't think that fake service dogs, if they are well behaved,
do adversely affect access issues for the disabled. I didn't change my opinion on this because I decided it was okay to inconvenience the disabled, it's because I was pushed to question whether they were actually harmed by a well-behaved fake, and realized that there really wasn't a way for that to be true.
Mostly, I just would like to see people show a little more sensitivity towards other's points of view. It seems fairly easy for people to assume that because someone doesn't meet the definition of disabled, they have no cares at all, and only want to have their dog with them because they are selfish and spoiled. And you
don't know what that person is going through, or why they are determined to be with their dog.
The first time I flew somewhere with Tess, I made the plane reservations and went along for a couple months, resolutely not thinking about what I was going to do. Shortly before the flight, making travel preparations, while still trying not to think about the fact that
my dog was going to be luggage, I had a panic attack. At least I assume that's what it was, it's the only one I've had. And I was driving at the time. Not good. I still managed to get through preparations, get my dog checked in, get in my seat myself, with the intention of napping... and realized that I couldn't possibly sleep when this
metal box might crash out of the sky any time and my dog would die alone! It was a very tense 4 hours.
The flight back was similar, and after landing and collecting my dog, instead of putting her in her crate in the back of my truck, she rode shotgun, because I had to
see her. And touch her.
I've often commented that I get separation anxiety pretty bad, but I didn't know how bad it really was until that flight. And crazily, I flew her again a couple months ago. Which actually wasn't quite as bad, maybe because our previous flight had gone well. Until we landed back at home, and I realized that the zip ties they'd put on her crate in the airport, before I could get mine on, were
not hand releasable like mine and I had no way to get them off and my dog was going to be stuck in her crate forever! Fortunately, another agility friend who was on the same flight had a set of scissors in her checked bag, and she handed it to me before I could wind myself up any further.
Anyway, just an example of how even a non-disabled person can be in a state where they just really need their dog. Why judge? Maybe the dog is the only thing keeping that person off the ledge right at that moment, you don't know. Which of course still doesn't give anyone the right to bring their dog into a store and have it pee on stuff, but not even a legitimately disabled person has that right.