Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs7812436

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

There have been news stories, articles, opinion pieces along with other editorials where people rant and complain about people they feel to be abusing the device. You hear some complain that they had to sit near your pet dog at a restaurant which they don't believe is really a "real" service dog, varieties complain that the neighbors use a pet inside a "no pet" building since they claimed the pet is esa letter.

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

How does this affect those who legitimately own and use a service animal to higher their lives? In many ways.

For one, it can it harder to navigate bureaucracy around the globe when your claim of your disability and your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. If a landlord or business proprietor has heard negative stories claiming that some people are abusing the machine, it can cause them to look suspiciously at all claimants.

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

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

Although registration is optional, it will also help shortcut the housing rental and business access issues once the owner can certainly produce a simple document which will often match the owner or landlord. Also, when using public spaces, it's easier to give over a document using a simple sentence stating, "This is really a service animal" and letting another party browse the information, instead of having a long-winded protracted conversation (or worse yet, argument) in public places, with onlookers listening in and gathering around the discussion.

So, do some people scam the machine, or game the law? Sadly, the reply is "probably yes." In your life, there is always room for abuse and individuals can try to take advantage of many systems that individuals as a society set up to protect the rights of those who need such protection. As an example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to take advantage of free and convenient parking. Not forgetting the number of people that lie on the tax returns, claim improper tax deductions, abuse shop return policies, or do other bad acts.

But that percentage of abuse, which in the area of service animal laws is hopefully small, might just be a very small investment when compared to the higher objective of promoting access and equality for many.

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