Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs6418812

Sadly, many people are asking whether "service animal" laws are increasingly being abused by those that want to scam the machine.

There have been news stories, articles, opinion pieces along with other editorials where people rant and complain about people they think to be abusing the device. You hear some complain that they had to sit near your pet dog at a restaurant that they don't believe can be a "real" service dog, or others complain that the neighbors use a pet in a "no pet" building because they claimed the pet is emotional support animal letter.

A few of the commentary posseses an indignant tone, and a few people are downright angry.

So how exactly does this affect those who legitimately own and employ a service animal to higher their lives? In lots of ways.

For one, it could it more challenging to navigate bureaucracy of the world when your claim of the disability and your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. If a landlord or company owner has heard negative stories claiming that many people are abusing the machine, it can cause these phones look suspiciously at all claimants.

Some landlord and business owners have begun asking for proof of status, although asking for written or any other evidence isn't necessarily legal, and although many people who just love legitimate service animals and emotional support animals haven't taken advantage of registering them, and thus have no such documentation to make.

It is the suspicious attitude and illegal demands of some landlords and business people that make registrations services such as the Service Animal Registry of California so fundamental to legitimate owners.

Although registration is optional, it can benefit shortcut the housing rental and business access issues when the owner can create a simple document that will often satisfy the owner or landlord. Also, when using public spaces, it is usually easier to give over a document with a simple sentence stating, "This is a service animal" and letting one other party read the information, as opposed to having a long-winded protracted conversation (or worse, argument) in public places, with onlookers listening in and gathering across the discussion.

So, do some people scam the system, or game what the law states? Sadly, the answer is "probably yes." In everyday life, there is always room for abuse the ones can try to take advantage of many systems that individuals as a society put in place to protect the rights of people who need such protection. As an example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to benefit from free and convenient parking. Not forgetting the number of people that lie on the tax returns, claim improper tax deductions, abuse store return policies, or do other bad acts.

But that percentage of abuse, which around service animal laws is hopefully small, might just be a very small price to pay when compared to the higher purpose of promoting access and equality for many.

In the end, you can't control any system to make it 100% abuse proof. So tolerating the few individuals who scam service animal laws is the price we gladly pay to ensure that the disabled inside the great condition of California have equal access under law.