Those "service" animals

[NIATPAC29]

What if anything do the cruiselines do to make sure a service animal is indeed a certified,real deal service animal? Do the owners have to carry documents? How many people are abusing the entire system due to theirs or their animals seperation anxiety problems in order to take the animal along? I personally know of this happening with the airlines. Yes yes i know its politically incorrect to ever question such things, but i hope they make these people prove they are indeed service animals and not---pets !!

[Keith1010]

We do not see service animals very often but have from time to time.

 

I am sure they require proof.

 

Think the best in people. Not the worst.

 

Life is short.

 

Keith

[maryjaden]

Unfortunately, I don't believe you are required to prove the service animal is require to travel on a cruise ship.

[sparks1093]

What if anything do the cruiselines do to make sure a service animal is indeed a certified,real deal service animal? Do the owners have to carry documents? How many people are abusing the entire system due to theirs or their animals seperation anxiety problems in order to take the animal along? I personally know of this happening with the airlines. Yes yes i know its politically incorrect to ever question such things, but i hope they make these people prove they are indeed service animals and not---pets !!

 

I don't believe their burden of proof is that significant or substantial and it does tend to lend itself to certain abuses.

[spookwife]

no burden of proof is required.

 

that being said. ESA( therapy animals, comfort animals, etc) ARE NOT covered under ADA and ARE NOT required to be accommodated like a True service animal.

 

the problem is, people do not know how to ask the right questions that satisfies the need to prove it is a service animal as opposed to a emotional support animal that does not violate ADA.

 

furthermore the ones with the ESA tend to be VERY loud, obnoxious and vocal about 'discrimination' and just bully their way into getting the animal through.

 

ESAs DO serve a valid function and have been a godsend for people with PTSD and other issues( some on the Spectrum, for instance) but they are not necessarily a vital requirement to a person's ability to function at all times. a service animal is.

[beachbum53]

What if anything do the cruiselines do to make sure a service animal is indeed a certified,real deal service animal? Do the owners have to carry documents? How many people are abusing the entire system due to theirs or their animals seperation anxiety problems in order to take the animal along? I personally know of this happening with the airlines. Yes yes i know its politically incorrect to ever question such things, but i hope they make these people prove they are indeed service animals and not---pets !!

 

Why is this such a concern? Is someone jealous because they can't bring their own fur baby on a cruise?

[klfrodo]

Why is this such a concern? Is someone jealous because they can't bring their own fur baby on a cruise?

 

Not even close

However your defensive comment is indicative of someone who would try to abuse the system to allow their ESA animal on a ship.

[beachbum53]

Not even close

However your defensive comment is indicative of someone who would try to abuse the system to allow their ESA animal on a ship.

 

Not even close. We're quite happy to leave our pets at home and spend a week without them. The less responsibility we have on vacation, the better.

 

The need for a service animal isn't always obvious to the casual observer. To me, the need for a service animal is no different than the need for a wheelchair, portable oxygen, or any other device that makes life better for someone with special needs. Those of us that don't have special needs should count our blessings. Taking just a few minutes to talk with someone that has a service dog can alleviate a lot of ignorance about why someone has the animal.

[NIATPAC29]

I am not advocating that fellow passengers should determine the need. But CCL needs to be sure to validate each case. Not give them a free pass to abuse the system

[ithaca gal]

Not even close. We're quite happy to leave our pets at home and spend a week without them. The less responsibility we have on vacation, the better.

 

The need for a service animal isn't always obvious to the casual observer. To me, the need for a service animal is no different than the need for a wheelchair, portable oxygen, or any other device that makes life better for someone with special needs. Those of us that don't have special needs should count our blessings. Taking just a few minutes to talk with someone that has a service dog can alleviate a lot of ignorance about why someone has the animal.

 

I don't think the OP is showing any ignorance about why someone has the animal. They are merely questioning whether everyone who brings an animal onboard with them has a true need to have the animal with them.

[NIATPAC29]

I saw a huge 4 foot by 5 foot square litter box on my last Cruise. I asked an employee about it and he said it was for the service dog. A doggie litter box and it was blocking the walkway on the deck

[sparks1093]

I am not advocating that fellow passengers should determine the need. But CCL needs to be sure to validate each case. Not give them a free pass to abuse the system

 

I am sure that they validate to the fullest extent that the law allows, which isn't much when all is said and done. As long as the animal is well behaved and unobtrusive I don't care.

[beachbum53]

I am not advocating that fellow passengers should determine the need. But CCL needs to be sure to validate each case. Not give them a free pass to abuse the system

 

What makes you think CCL doesn't validate the need for a service animal? I'm having a hard time understanding why this is such an issue for some people.

[NIATPAC29]

It's not a huge concern. Just a topic for discussion. I have my doubts if CCL really checks to see due to the sensitive nature of the issues. God forbid someone might get offended

[TC1957]

It's not a huge concern. Just a topic for discussion. I have my doubts if CCL really checks to see due to the sensitive nature of the issues. God forbid someone might get offended

 

Or...God forbid...someone who hasn't had a training refresher course in some time asks the wrong questions (read questions that violate the law) and get the cruise line slapped with a huge fine/court judgment and end up losing their job.

[beachbum53]

It's not a huge concern. Just a topic for discussion. I have my doubts if CCL really checks to see due to the sensitive nature of the issues. God forbid someone might get offended

 

Since you have doubts, call Carnival and ask them what steps are taken to ensure that an animal on a ship is indeed a service animal and not just someone's pet.

[denas]

My son has a service animal. Carnival asks us to state the tasks the animal is trained to provide. This is what the law states. My son's dog provides seizure alert and mobility assistance. That is what we tell them. This is where people who don't have a true service animal usually get caught as "she provides emotional support" or "he just keeps me from being anxious" are not trained tasks.

 

Emotional support animals are not covered under the ADA as they are not task-trained for a disability. However, there are service dogs who are task trained for PTSD and autism so the commenter who lumped emotional support animals with those task-trained to assist with anxiety or behavior disruption caused by PTSD is not correct. The organization we worked with that provided my son's dog also provides both autism-assistance dogs to children and PTSD dogs to Veterans. These dogs can assist with ensuring adults take medication on time, sense an anxiety attack and use several trained techniques to help the child/adult cope with the anxiety, and provide other task-trained services depending upon the scope and nature of the disability.

 

Travelling with a trained service dog is still difficult. My son's dog has been trained since birth to deal with being in public. She goes to school with him everyday so she rides the school bus and is in an elementary school so used to dealing with LOTS of kids. She also does restaurants and malls just fine. She is trained to go potty on command and is trained to use small litter boxes. But the crowd on a ship is a challenge for even an experienced, well-trained service dog. Someone's pet is going to have a really tough time.

 

Those of us with trained service dogs would love for people to not try and pass your pet off as a service dog. It is a huge problem as an untrained dog can be a danger to my son's service dog in public (service dogs have been bitten by untrained dogs) and leave a bad impressions. Unless someone sees us walk in or out, they seldom know our dog is present (she lays under a table in a restaurant or under a seat in a theater/plane completely out of the way and doesn't eat food off the ground or sniff people or do anything else that calls attention to her. She only barks if she is alerting to a seizure or my son is eloping. We had to have a doctor's prescription certifying a disability and need, references and interviews to verify that we were capable of handling a dog, fund raised over $13,000 dollars to cover part of the cost of dog training (it costs anywhere from $25-40,000 to train a service dog), and had to cover travel expenses and hotel costs to spend 14 days to be trained as a service dog handler to bring our dog home. We are re-certified annually. It is a very long, expensive process but worth it if a service dog can provide a person with a disability the opportunity to have a more "normal" life. However, it is frustrating to go through all of that and see someone pass off a pet as a service dog simply because they don't want to leave Fluffy home.

[beachbum53]

Thank-you, denas, for sharing your information. I would imagine that all of the cruise lines have similar procedures for determining if an animal is indeed a service animal that the passenger has to have, and not just a pet that they want to have.

[denas]

I should also add that while the only "verification" that the cruise lines do is ask the tasks the animal is trained to provide, you can't just show up with an animal. You need to fill out paperwork ahead of time for the cruiselines AND you need to get all of the customs forms for each port visited (many require different forms and different timelines so this may involve a couple of vet visits with the associated office fees and form fees for each visit). Paperwork needs to be submitted ahead of time to the cruiselines and presented again when you board. A supervisor from the shore escorts you on the ship and waits until the ship customs officer states they have everything before they leave since they will escort you right back off the ship if paperwork isn't complete. Then when you are in each port, you have to wait for the clearance officer to call your stateroom and say customs from that country cleared the dog before you are allowed to get off the ship (your keycards are coded and ding). Each country/port requires different forms/paperwork and different vaccines and many require additional fees. The cruiselines don't provide a lot of assistance in navigating the paperwork so you have to do it on your own.

 

We are cruising Carnival this summer and picked the itinerary because it was 2 stops in Bahamas and one in Grand Turk so only 2 countries. We have cruised the Bahamas with our dog before and the paperwork was pretty easy and they accepted US Rabies vaccines. However, we found out that import permits for Grand Turk are incredibly difficult and expensive to get and the port has tons of stray dogs. We now have to decide to bring the dog and end up leaving someone on the ship with the dog in Grand Turk or leaving her at home for this cruise (which brings up other issues since my son relies more on his wheelchair when he doesn't have the dog). Like I said, it isn't easy.

[NIATPAC29]

So the dog appears to be optional. Why go to the trouble? Leave the dog at home and push the wheelchair

[chengkp75]

Since you have doubts, call Carnival and ask them what steps are taken to ensure that an animal on a ship is indeed a service animal and not just someone's pet.

 

As denas says, the only thing the cruise line can ask, under the law, is what task the animal is trained to perform. Further, there is no national or state registry for service animals, nor is there any standards for their training. This is why you can go online and get a certificate for your dog for $40, just for applying.

[MommaBear55]

So the dog appears to be optional. Why go to the trouble? Leave the dog at home and push the wheelchair

 

Because the goal of every person with a disability is to live as independent and normal a life as possible. Yes, a wheelchair could be used full time. However it is never the goal to take a step backwards.

 

Also, if this is a seizure detection dog and that seizure happened at night, the ability of that dog to alert for the seizure could prevent the patient dying.

[sparks1093]

Because the goal of every person with a disability is to live as independent and normal a life as possible. Yes, a wheelchair could be used full time. However it is never the goal to take a step backwards.

 

Also, if this is a seizure detection dog and that seizure happened at night, the ability of that dog to alert for the seizure could prevent the patient dying.

 

Very nicely put.

[WisconsinFan]

How about a service kangaroo? Not kidding, this really happened. http://www.wisn.com/news/woman-brings-kangaroo-into-beaver-dam-mcdonalds/31070566

 

Beaver Dam has now had to make a law that states kangaroos are not service animals.

[moniquet]

There was a similar thread recently where an old woman had a tiny dog on a cruise. She took it in the dining room every evening dressed in a different outfit! There were complaints of it yapping. The people who lie about it being a service dog then spoil it for the genuine. Very similar to the ones who don't really need mobility scooters but hire them to zoom around the ship.