So, there’s a problem.

It’s very likely that, in your lifetime, you’ve come across a cute furry dog with a very important job. I see them every day as I walk around my campus, through supermarkets and all throughout my city. The dramatic increase to service animals I’ve encountered may be due to the fact that I live in a college town now, but it got me wondering: How many of these animals really are official service animals?

And there’s our problem.

According to the ADA, in order to be classified as a service dog, with full public access, the pooch must fulfill three qualifications:

1. It must specifically be trained to perform tasks that mitigate the handler's disability.

2. It must be accompanied by a person with a physical, mental, developmental, or other disability.

3. It must be house trained and under the control of the handler.

As its web page states, “A service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.”

So, then what about Therapy Dogs (TDs) or Emotional Support Animals (ESAs), Sierra?

In a Frequently Asked Questions webpage for the Disability Rights Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, the third most frequently asked question was, “Are emotional support, therapy, comfort, or companion animals considered service animals under the ADA?” to which the Department of Justice invariably replied with a swift, “No.” Because the animals have not been trained to perform a specific job or task, they do not qualify as service animals under the ADA, which clearly states (with an underline no less) that although they may be used for medical treatment, “they are not considered service animals under the ADA.” Although some states, cities, governments, business-owners, etc. may allow them at their own will.

So, what exactly is the problem then?

The problem is that because people just want to take their animals anywhere and everywhere, they play the system by misrepresenting their animal as a service dog (service animals are limited to dogs with the very rare exception of the horse). It’s been found that both The Average Joe and owners of ESAs and TDs have been taking advantage of legislature set in place to aid and accommodate those with disabilities. I can’t really give you statistics or hard facts about how many people are abusing the system, because nobody’s raising their hand in the street to admit they’re breaking the rules.

The true crime is that people with disabilities have worked so hard to get to this point where their service animals are accepted and allowed in public spaces. Giving your chihuahua a vest and letting it parade around is dangerous not only to the people around it, but to the reputation of service dogs and those who need them. In some states—Colorado, Florida, Washington and Wyoming, to name a few—misrepresenting your animal has become a crime punishable by a hefty fine. But why is it so important that we stop these imposters?

Those states, among others, have seen attacks from fake service animals. In an article by the Denver Post, they relay the perfect example for why abusing the system is a severe offense. A woman with an ESA brought her dog to a café where she was directly asked two questions: “Is that a service animal?” and “What service does the dog perform for you?” These are questions establishments are allowed to ask to both determine if the person’s animal may be admitted, and to help with any accommodations that they may need. The woman, point-blank, lied to the wait-staff. While having lunch on the terrace with a few of her friends, an 8-year-old boy walked by. The dog, unprovoked, lunged at the boy and bit him. A significant reason that ESAs and TDs are not service dogs, and are not permitted in public places, is because they, like most pets, are not highly trained to handle themselves in the public. The boy sustained minor injuries and wasn’t traumatized by the attack, but this could have been so much worse.

At my own university, there has been service dogs attacked by other “service dogs.” One student, a service dog handler, confided in me, “My service dog has been attacked by other dogs on campus, some of which were inside campus buildings, six times since the beginning of this school year. I'm going to have to spend the summer reconditioning him to dogs again because he is now very wary of them. Lack of education about ESA vs SD vs TD is a big issue, but a bigger issue is that people just don't understand dog behavior at all, and they don't bother to train their dogs.” And this is just one drop in what I’m sure is a sea of many. Attacks aren’t the only problem people have with these imposters either.

A friend of mine shared her experience regarding a friend of the family, whom she attends college with, who bought a dog from the animal shelter to cheer her up after a break up. “She does not seem to have any disabilities or disorders of any kind, and her family confirms this... She now wants to bring the dog to school with her. She complained to every administrator she could get a hold of and tried to argue that this half decently (and only half) behaved mutt is her ESA.” And this entire time she’s trying to convince people she needs her dog in class, she didn’t stop to research the fact that ESAs are not required by law to be permitted. My friend continues: “She went online and for $15 bought a fake patch for him and again tried to convince [the school] to allow her dog. When they didn't, she brought him to one of her classes anyway. [The dog] disrupted the class immensely, and the [professor] asked her to leave. She emailed administrators citing discrimination against her.” I don’t know about this university, but at mine, it’s estimated that a single class is estimated to be about $75. Let me repeat that: Those students lost seventy-five dollars because this chick wanted to bring her little yappy dog to class. Some people just have no regard for others!

Many people in the disabled community have expressed their frustration with these dogs clad in false vests. Lon Hodge, a disabled veteran, laments in an article for Fusion TV: “Those scams hurt people with legitimate service dogs.” Hodge himself has been turned away because business owners did not believe that his dog was a real service animal. Businesses grow wary of the real deal when they’ve had fakes trafficked through too often. Kyle Walpole, another disabled vet with an eye for spotting fakes, claims that he’s seen hundreds of phonies walk the streets of his Colorado hometown. He fears that the progress the disabled community has made with service animals will quickly be extinguished by those who abuse the system.

So basically, this is my plea to everyone out there: Stop passing your underqualified pets off as service dogs! To the untrained eye, it can be extremely difficult to discover those who are defrauding the system. By law, real service dogs aren’t required to wear a vest (or any other indicator). There isn’t a national registry for them either.

Before you decide to put your Cujo in a vest, think about every single person you could be hurting in this: The blind girl who uses her dog to see, the epileptic man whose dog can sense his seizures before they happen, the boy on the street who doesn’t want to be bit or barked at by your dog, and the veteran who paid $45,000 for a dog that helps him perform normal day-to-day tasks.

Don’t think that by putting Fido in a vest, you’re not hurting anyone. You are.