Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs1833275

Sadly, many people 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 system. You hear some complain that they had to sit near your pet dog at a restaurant they don't believe is really a "real" service dog, varieties complain that the neighbors have a pet inside a "no pet" building simply because they claimed the pet is esa doctors.

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

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

For one, it may it harder to navigate bureaucracy around the globe when your claim of a disability and 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 machine, it can cause these phones look suspiciously whatsoever claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun requesting proof of status, although asking for written or another evidence isn't necessarily legal, and even though many those who own legitimate service animals and emotional support animals have not 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 companies that make registrations services such as the Service Animal Registry of California so fundamental 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 will often fulfill the owner or landlord. Also, when utilizing public spaces, it is usually easier to give a document with 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, do some people scam the machine, or game the law? Sadly, the answer then is "probably yes." In everyday life, there is always room for abuse the ones can try to take advantage of many systems that individuals 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. Not to mention the number of people that lie on their tax returns, claim improper tax deductions, abuse store return policies, or do other bad acts.

But that percentage of abuse, which in the area of 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 making it 100% abuse proof. So tolerating the few people who scam service animal laws will be the price we gladly pay to make sure that the disabled inside the great state of California have equal access under law.