Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs3336124

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

There have been news stories, articles, opinion pieces along with other editorials where people rant and complain about people they believe to be abusing the system. You hear some complain that they had to sit near your dog at a restaurant which they don't believe can be a "real" service dog, forms of languages complain that their neighbors use a pet inside a "no pet" building since they claimed the pet is esa doctors.

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

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

For one, it could it more challenging to navigate bureaucracy on the planet when your claim of a disability along with your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. In case a landlord or company owner has heard negative stories claiming that many people are abusing the system, it can cause these to look suspiciously whatsoever claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun requesting proof of status, even though asking for written or other evidence isn't necessarily legal, although many owners of legitimate service animals and emotional support animals have not taken advantage of registering them, and so have no such documentation to create.

It is the suspicious attitude and illegal demands of some landlords and business people that make registrations services such as the Service Animal Registry of California so important legitimate owners.

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

So, do some people scam the machine, or game what the law states? Sadly, the answer is "probably yes." In everyday life, there is always room for abuse and people can try to take advantage of many systems that people as a society put in place 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 forgetting the number of folks 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 the area of service animal laws is hopefully small, might just be a very small price to pay when compared to the higher purpose of promoting access and equality for all.

In the end, you can not 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 that the disabled within the great state of California have equal access under law.