QUESTION
Service animal illegally trained and trainer will not do anything more.
Asked on Jul 23rd, 2014 on Animal Law - Florida
More details to this question:
I register my dog in service animal training and the trainer knew I did not have a disability and said that it was still legal to train him as one. After training was over he tells me it is illegal and my dog is a companion animal and refuses to refund my money. I contacted local PD and they do not know anything about service animals or the laws and told me to contact an attorney for them to decide if this is a civil or criminal case. I have tried to find one in my area but no luck. I was told that this is fraud for him training my dog and knowing full when it is illegal and not telling me that till the end of training.
1 ANSWER
Consumer Debt Collector Harassment & Abuse Attorney serving Tampa, FL
Partner at
Tischhauser Law Group
2 Awards
I am confused, as at best I both of you at fault. First, absent you having a disability that requires a recognized service animal the designation serves no purpose. That is, unless your intentions are to use the designation as an improper means to bring your dog in restricted places or to aovid rental pet restrictions, etc. Since your dog is now trained I am not sure why this issue is such a concern. As to the designation issue, you may well need to retain a lawyer to explore the standards at issue, as I am not sure that there is a requirement that you are disabled to have a dog trained as such any more than there are schools that train dogs as police dogs for civilan purposes including foreign language commands etc. If you have further questions, please feel free to call us at 1-800-922-6442 for a FREE consultation.
Answered on Jul 23rd, 2014 at 8:05 AM
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