Man gets away with using pet ID as proof of vaccination

A man in the province of Ontario, Canada, has been successfully using pet ID as proof of vaccination anytime he goes to a restaurant. Although fully vaccinated, the experiment was to expose the loopholes in the verification of vaccine passes.

Lucky Streak

Capp (not his real name), possesses what appears at first glance to be a legitimate driving licence. But a closer look reveals it to be a pet identification card, furnished with a photo of his dog and his specifics.

Capp presents this document to local establishments as an identification to verify that the information corresponds with that on the proof of vaccination. He said:

The first time that I showed his ID, I just did it being a goofbal. Then I started showing it to see if they were paying attention. Clearly they weren’t because they accepted it as well and moved on to the next person in our group.

He went ahead to use the doggy idea in different other places without being found out, except at a restaurant in Barrie which refused him entry for providing his original driving licence.

Capp is hoping there will be a more efficient way of verifying the identification of vaccine pass holders. He said:

We want to support local businesses, but safety is paramount during a pandemic, so we should all be following the safety protocols in place so we can all get through this together.

‘It’s Useless’

Another resident, Greg Lubianetzky also laments the lapses in the verification process which does not rely on scanning. As of now, businesses in the province are not mandated to scan the QR code on the proof of vaccination. Lubianetzky doubts the efficiency of the current system:

It seems kind of silly to have a vaccine certification program where they don’t certify at the end. When you go in somewhere and they don’t scan it, the security is nil. It’s like putting a great big bolt on your front door and just leaving it open. It’s useless.

He added that without scanning, anyone could duplicate and alter a verification.

The region's medical officer of health, Dr. Charles Gardner, said such concerns are low compared with the level of compliance.

It’s very, very hard to actually catch this kind of thing and resource it, and we don’t have enough resources to proactively do that. We depend on people’s goodwill to do that