Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs3496997

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

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

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

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

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

Some landlord and business people have begun asking for proof of status, despite the fact that asking for written or any other evidence isn't necessarily legal, although many those who own legitimate service animals and emotional support animals never have taken advantage of registering them, and therefore have no such documentation to create.

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 if the owner can certainly produce a simple document that may often fulfill the owner or landlord. Also, when using public spaces, it is often easier to give a document having 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 even worse, argument) in public places, with onlookers listening in and gathering across the discussion.

So, perform some people scam the device, or game the law? Sadly, the answer then is "probably yes." In life, there is always room for abuse and individuals can try to take advantage of many systems that we as a society applied to protect the rights of those that need such protection. For example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to take advantage of free and convenient parking. As well as 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 in service animal laws is hopefully small, is arguably a very small investment when compared to the higher objective of promoting access and equality for all.

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.