Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs4985575

Sadly, some people are asking whether "service animal" laws are being abused by those who 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 system. You hear some complain they had to sit near your pet dog at a restaurant which they don't believe is really a "real" service dog, or others complain that their neighbors have a pet inside a "no pet" building since they claimed the pet is how to ask doctor for emotional support animal.

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

So how exactly does this affect those who legitimately own and make use of a service animal to better their lives? In several ways.

For one, it could it more difficult to navigate bureaucracy of the world when your claim of your disability and your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. If your landlord or company owner has heard negative stories claiming that some people are abusing the device, it can cause them to look suspiciously in any way claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun requesting proof of status, although asking for written or any other evidence is not always legal, and even though many people who just love legitimate service animals and emotional support animals never have taken advantage of registering them, and therefore have no such documentation to create.

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 once the owner can create a simple document that will often fulfill the owner or landlord. Also, when utilizing public spaces, it's easier to give over a document having a simple sentence stating, "This is really a service animal" and letting the other party see the information, instead of having a long-winded protracted conversation (or worse, argument) in public, with onlookers listening in and gathering round the discussion.

So, do some people scam the system, or game regulations? Sadly, the reply is "probably yes." In life, there is always room for abuse the ones can attempt to take advantage of many systems that we as a society applied to protect the rights of people who need such protection. For instance, 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 retail store return policies, or do other bad acts.

However that percentage of abuse, which around service animal laws is hopefully small, might just be a very small investment when compared to the higher goal of promoting access and equality for many.

In the end, you can not control any system to make it 100% abuse proof. So tolerating the few individuals who scam service animal laws is the price we gladly pay to ensure that the disabled inside the great condition of California have equal access under law.