"Fake Service Dog" videos
I'm gonna be blunt here: they suck
I see so many "fake service animal compilation" videos on YouTube and I've watched maybe one or two of them, and I want to say:
THEY ARE HARMFUL TO THE SERVICE DOG COMMUNITY
Yes, I do understand that they spread awareness of how big the problem is, but I see them so abundantly and frequently, and what I've seen some of them don't even warrant be filmed or at least posted ONLINE because some dogs aren't causing a large problem.
Ninety-Nine to 100% of these videos are posted without consent. While having a fake service dog is a crime, so is filming and sharing a video of someone without consent. A crime does not fix a crime (usually).
I'm not saying that it isn't ever okay to film something like this, because I completely understand needing proof, but in my opinion, these videos need to stay between the service dog handlers, the people who care for them, and store managers at least 80% of the time.
Too many people do bring untrained pets into stores and it's ridiculous seeing people not being able to control a reactive dog and not doing anything to correct them. It's stupid, and it makes it hard for Service Dogs and SDiT's to stay focused. It's enraging sometimes with how much shit we already have to deal with.
But taking the effort to film a pet in the store and posting it online for thousands of millions of people to see could put you and whoever you're filming in danger. Not only this, but when people with Service Dogs start to yell and make a big deal about it, it makes the situation stressful for everyone in the mix, probably usually including the handlers filming. It also creates bad representation for the community imo, and it's the reason some people call us "Karen's". Telling someone that they shouldn't bring their fake service dogs into the store is one thing, but yelling it after them over and over does nothing but attract attention to the real SD handler and the dog. There's also the fact that Most of these people already know what they are doing, and doing these things are virtually useless unless you can talk about the situation to a manager or the authorities. Most of the videos don't teach anything, and a compilation of these out of control dogs make the public even more skeptical about service animals.
Not only this, but they can also make Service Dog and SDiT handlers more nervous about going into public. What happens if your SD pukes or has diarrhea out of the blue (shit literally happens) and someone films and posts it online? What happens if your SDiT sees something scary they haven't before and reacts differently than you've trained them to and it becomes a viral sensation? There's no way of telling what situation an animal is in either. The person you could be filming may be homeless and not have a way of keeping their pet at home. They might be a older looking child/teen who doesn't know the laws on SD's.
Almost every other type of video is absolutely fine to post online and I wish I would see more of them. Public access issues where someone is being denied service, videos where the handler is showcasing/talking about tasks or showing how they've been trained, videos showing/saying that service dogs are still dogs and make mistakes are my favorite type of video because they inform instead of cause more drama within the community.
I'm not saying all of these videos are harmful, but a majority of them don't need to be posted online. It makes me uncomfortable.
Anyways I guess this was kinda just a vent. Thanks for reading if you read all the way to the end and don't be afraid to let me know what you think about them or if you have a different opinion in a respectful way!
