Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs7005218

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

There have been news stories, articles, opinion pieces as well as other editorials where people rant and complain about people they believe to be abusing the device. You hear some complain they had to sit near your dog at a restaurant that they don't believe can be a "real" service dog, varieties complain that the neighbors use a pet inside a "no pet" building since they claimed your pet is emotional support animal letter.

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

How does this affect those who legitimately own and make use of a service animal to better their lives? In lots of ways.

For one, it can it more difficult to navigate bureaucracy around the globe when your claim of the 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 individuals are abusing the device, it can cause them to look suspiciously in any way claimants.

Some landlord and business owners have begun requesting proof of status, even though asking for written or another evidence might not be legal, and even though many owners of legitimate service animals and emotional support animals haven't 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 business people that make registrations services 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 using public spaces, it's easier to give a document having a simple sentence stating, "This is really a service animal" and letting one other party browse the information, rather than having a long-winded protracted conversation (or even worse, argument) in public places, with onlookers listening in and gathering round the discussion.

So, do some people scam the device, or game regulations? Sadly, the reply is "probably yes." In your life, there is always room for abuse the ones can try 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. As well as the number of folks who lie on their own 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, could well be a very small investment when compared to the higher goal of promoting access and equality for many.

In the end, you cannot 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 make sure that the disabled inside the great condition of California have equal access under law.