Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs6392988

Sadly, some people are asking whether "service animal" laws are 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 system. You hear some complain that they to sit near your pet dog at a restaurant which they don't believe is a "real" service dog, varieties complain that their neighbors use a pet in the "no pet" building since they claimed the animal is emotional support animal.

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

How does this affect those that legitimately own and employ a service animal to higher their lives? In several ways.

For one, it may it more difficult 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 machine, it can cause them to look suspiciously whatsoever claimants.

Some landlord and business people have begun asking for proof of status, despite the fact that asking for written or another evidence might not be legal, although many people who just love legitimate service animals and emotional support animals haven't taken advantage of registering them, and so have no such documentation to produce.

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 help shortcut the housing rental and business access issues if the owner can create a simple document that may often fulfill the owner or landlord. Also, when working with public spaces, it's easier to hand over a document having a simple sentence stating, "This can be a service animal" and letting another party read the information, rather than having a long-winded protracted conversation (or even worse, argument) in public areas, with onlookers listening in and gathering around 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 we as a society put in place to protect the rights of those who need such protection. As an example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to take advantage of free and convenient parking. Not to mention the number of people who lie on the 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 goal of promoting access and equality for those.

In the end, you cannot 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 ensure the disabled within the great state of California have equal access under law.