Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs3880197

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

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

Some of the commentary comes with an indignant tone, and a few people are downright angry.

So how exactly does this affect people who legitimately own and employ a service animal to better their lives? In lots of ways.

For one, it may it more challenging to navigate bureaucracy on the planet when your claim of a disability as well as your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. In case a landlord or business proprietor has heard negative stories claiming that many people are abusing the system, it can cause these to look suspiciously in any way claimants.

Some landlord and business people have begun requesting 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 produce.

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

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

So, carry out some people scam the machine, or game regulations? Sadly, the answer is "probably yes." In life, there is always room for abuse and people can attempt to take advantage of many systems that people as a society put in place to protect the rights of people who need such protection. For example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to benefit from free and convenient parking. As well as the number of people who lie on their tax returns, claim improper tax deductions, abuse retail store return policies, or do other bad acts.

However 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 objective of promoting access and equality for those.

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