About Us
A different kind of service-animal registry
Open Service Animal Registry (OSAR) is being built around a simple idea: a voluntary registry can be useful without pretending that registration creates legal status.
Federal law does not require service animals to be registered or certified. OSAR fully supports that principle. We do not believe a handler should have to purchase a certificate, identification card, vest, or registry membership to establish the legitimacy of a task-trained service animal.
Instead, OSAR exists to provide something different: a free, transparent, portable record that a handler can choose to use when it is helpful.
Basic registration with OSAR is free. There is no annual membership fee, no subscription, and no pay-to-certify model.
Our focus is on two categories of animals:
- Task-trained service animals, including eligible owner-trained service dogs; and
- Bona fide working dogs, such as search-and-rescue, detection, conservation, agricultural, and other legitimate working disciplines.
OSAR does not currently register Emotional Support Animals (ESAs). Emotional support can be meaningful, but an ESA is fundamentally different from an animal individually trained to perform identifiable work or tasks. Keeping that distinction clear is central to OSAR's mission.
Why OSAR exists
Private registries already exist, but registration alone tells someone very little.
A registry entry might simply mean that someone completed an online form and paid a fee. A professionally printed card or certificate may look official without establishing who the handler is, whether the animal exists, or whether any claimed training relationship has ever been independently confirmed.
OSAR is designed around a different question:
What do we actually know about this record, and how do we know it?
That is why OSAR distinguishes between:
Handler Attested
Information supplied and affirmed by the handler.
and:
Independently Verified
A specific fact that has been confirmed through an independent process.
An OSAR record may therefore show, separately:
- whether the handler's identity has been independently verified;
- whether the animal was owner-trained or professionally trained;
- whether a named trainer or training organization confirmed the relationship;
- whether an animal's identity has been linked to a microchip; and
- whether additional assessments or observations have been completed.
We do not combine those distinctions into a vague "Certified Service Dog" label.
Built for handlers, not around merchandise
OSAR is designed as a digital-first registry and verification platform.
Every eligible active record can have a secure public verification page and QR code, allowing someone to verify the current OSAR record at no charge.
OSAR is also designed to support Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, giving handlers a convenient digital credential without requiring them to purchase a physical identification card.
We do not sell service-dog vests, patches, certificates, identification cards, or other merchandise.
That decision is intentional.
OSAR's mission is to operate trustworthy registry and verification infrastructure, not to make money selling the appearance of service-animal legitimacy.
A voluntary tool
An OSAR credential is never intended to become something a handler must show to exercise legitimate rights.
A handler may simply prefer having one current record available on a phone. Others may choose to share it when traveling, interacting with an airline or hotel, documenting information for an organization, or attempting to resolve a misunderstanding concerning a service animal.
The choice belongs to the handler.
OSAR provides the record.
The law determines the rights.