FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

• Are they licensed, bonded, insured and/or certified
• Have you checked references of breeder & trainer

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act – Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. 

Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.

There are many people who claim to train service animals.  Some of these people elicit donations as well.  Please do your due diligence and ask questions such as:

• How much is needed?
• How much has been raised?
• Exactly what are the donations paying for?
• What task is the dog being trained to do? 
• Is it mitigating a disability for that person? 

As a donor you have certain informational rights relative to your donation & its use.

If they are soliciting donations who are the donations being paid to?  

• A non-profit?
• A bank acct in the name of the disabled individual?
• A GoFundMe account?  

If funds are being paid directly to a business (not a non-profit) or individual (not the disabled person), I would question the validity of the process as there are many avenues to take charitable donations, in which certain laws & disclosures apply such as those bulleted above.  You certainly want to ensure that your donation is being used as you intended it to be used.