Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs9934469

Sadly, some people are asking whether "service animal" laws are increasingly being abused by people who want to scam the system.

There have been news stories, articles, opinion pieces as well as other editorials where people rant and complain about people they feel to be abusing the machine. You hear some complain that they had to sit near your dog at a restaurant they don't believe is really a "real" service dog, or others complain their neighbors possess a pet in a "no pet" building because they claimed the pet is how to ask doctor for emotional support animal.

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

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

For one, it may it more challenging to navigate bureaucracy around the globe when your claim of the disability along with your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. In case a landlord or company owner has heard negative stories claiming that some individuals are abusing the system, it can cause these to look suspiciously in any way claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun asking for proof of status, even though asking for written or any other evidence might not be legal, although many those who own legitimate service animals and emotional support animals haven't 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 owners that make registrations services like the Service Animal Registry of California so important 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 that may often satisfy the owner or landlord. Also, when working with public spaces, it is often easier to hand over a document having a simple sentence stating, "This can be a service animal" and letting one other party browse the information, as opposed to having a long-winded protracted conversation (or worse, argument) in public places, with onlookers listening in and gathering round the discussion.

So, perform 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 people can make an effort to take advantage of many systems that individuals as a society put in place to protect the rights of those who need such protection. For instance, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to benefit from free and convenient parking. As well as the number of folks who lie on their tax returns, claim improper tax deductions, abuse retail store return policies, or do other bad acts.

But that percentage of abuse, which in 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 all.

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