Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs2505202

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

There have been news stories, articles, opinion pieces and other editorials where people rant and complain about people they think to be abusing the system. 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 possess a pet inside a "no pet" building simply because they claimed the pet is how to ask doctor for emotional support animal.

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

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

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

Some landlord and companies have begun requesting proof of status, although asking for written or any other evidence is not always legal, although many people who just love legitimate service animals and emotional support animals have not taken advantage of registering them, and thus have no such documentation to produce.

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

Although registration is optional, it can benefit shortcut the housing rental and business access issues if the owner can create a simple document that may often match the owner or landlord. Also, when utilizing public spaces, it is often easier to hand over a document having a simple sentence stating, "This can be a service animal" and letting the other party browse the information, instead of having a long-winded protracted conversation (or worse, argument) in public, with onlookers listening in and gathering around the discussion.

So, do some people scam the device, or game what the law states? Sadly, the answer is "probably yes." In everyday life, there is always room for abuse and individuals can attempt to take advantage of many systems that people 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 take advantage of free and convenient parking. Not to mention the number of people that lie on their own 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, might just be a very small investment when compared to the higher purpose of promoting access and equality for many.

In the end, you can not control any system to really 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 within the great condition of California have equal access under law.