Any dog owner knows the love you feel for your dog, but sometimes people who own dogs are so in love with them that they want to be with them all the time; those people are now making their pets service dogs.

Service dogs are made for the people who have medical and psychological disabilities. They are trained to help someone who is blind help retrieve something, provide emotional support, and trained for specific medical issues, like recognizing diabetic patients with dropping insulin. Although, it is becoming more common to see someone pass their pet as a service dog, so they can take them anywhere, abusing the service dog laws.

For people with disabilities who require a service dog, it’s not just a pet for them. They are a part of that person. They go through intense training to be a service dogs. These dogs are trained to help the person find their way, get keys, open doors, and more. Passing someone’s pet, even if this pet is a therapy pet, is not the same as a service dog.

Over the years, the number of people passing their pets off as service dogs has increased. They put cute little vests on their pets and take them in public. This puts actual service dogs in jeopardy. If someone’s pet was not trained to be a service dog, their behavior in public is unpredictable. Service dogs are supposed to help out the person they are serving, a pet may bounce around crowds and bark at anything. That’s not a service dog. That’s a pet they want to take out because they love them.

There was a report last year in DogTime that talked to people about their fake service dogs. They said they buy fake vests in stores so they can take their dog inside a building instead of tying them up. There are laws that say if you fake your pet for a service dog, you are fined $500.

In California, a person is fined $1000 and sent to jail for six months. In 2014, 2500 dogs accompanied people on  airplanes,increasing 11% from 2015.

On a U.S Airway flight, a supposed service dog caused the plane to have an emergency landing because it defecated in the aisle. Randy Pierce, who has been blind for 17 years, was on a plane with his service dog when another so-called service dog kept barking at his animal. He said that she, his dog, did not bark back, but her behavior changed which makes it harder to do his job.

So many people actually need service dogs for medical and psychological disabilities. They are not a furry cute animal to hang around them when they go to the grocery store. Those dogs are there to serve, to help those people in need. Buying a vest to pass a pet as a service dog is abusing the laws of service dogs.