Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs792972

Sadly, some people are asking whether "service animal" laws are now being abused by people who 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 believe to be abusing the machine. You hear some complain they had to sit near a dog at a restaurant they don't believe can be a "real" service dog, or others complain their neighbors possess a pet in a "no pet" building since they claimed the animal is emotional support animal registration.

Some of the commentary posseses an indignant tone, plus some people are downright angry.

How can this affect those that legitimately own and use a service animal to better their lives? In several ways.

For one, it can it more difficult to navigate bureaucracy on the planet when your claim of a disability and your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. In case a landlord or company owner has heard negative stories claiming that some people are abusing the machine, it can cause these to look suspiciously in any way claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun asking for proof of status, despite the fact that asking for written or any other evidence is not always legal, and even though many those who own legitimate service animals and emotional support animals haven't taken advantage of registering them, and therefore have no such documentation to make.

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

Although registration is optional, it can benefit shortcut the housing rental and business access issues once the owner can certainly produce a simple document that may often fulfill the owner or landlord. Also, when working with public spaces, it is usually easier to give over a document with a simple sentence stating, "This is really a service animal" and letting the other party browse the information, rather than having a long-winded protracted conversation (or even worse, argument) in public places, with onlookers listening in and gathering round the discussion.

So, perform some people scam the machine, or game regulations? Sadly, the answer is "probably yes." In everyday 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 that need such protection. For instance, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to take advantage of free and convenient parking. Not forgetting the number of people who 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 service animal laws is hopefully small, could well be a very small investment when compared to the higher goal of promoting access and equality for all.

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