Shared on ABC7 SWFL’s YouTube channel, news of the man who registered a beehive as a service animal is spreading fast. David Keller lives in Prescott Valley, Arizona. He recently took issue with how he perceived it to be “…just too easy to get these animals to be ‘service animals.’” He was referring to an incident in his home state where he says he witnessed a service dog “…pulling the owner to the parking lot,” after which he felt he should take a stand.
Reactions were notably mixed. “A lot of people thought it was hilarious, and a lot of people were getting upset,” he said, according to kcbd.com. Keller explained that he proceeded to go to usaservicedogregistration.com. This was where he was able to register a photo of a beehive as a service animal, in the process of trying “to bring awareness to the issue that anyone could do this.”
Video: YouTube/ABC7 SWFL
Here in Texas, we take service animals quite seriously. If they go missing, we search for them. One former President had one that was near and dear to his heart. And we even go as far as hiring people and making a place for their service dog at work! Keller believes he was making a point in showing how easy it was to register an animal on a website as one in service. There are a variety of service animal registration sites online. “They’re very silly. They don’t mean anything,” a service dog trainer recently identified to kcbd.com with respect to Keller’s steps. “You can go pay for a registry on one of those websites, and basically you’re just paying for a piece of paper and to put a name on a list.” There are, however, some rules in the process of determining an official service animal. U.S. law states that only miniature horses and dogs can be used as official service animals.