Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs5341917

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

There have been news stories, articles, opinion pieces as well as other editorials where people rant and complain about people they think to be abusing the machine. You hear some complain that they had to sit near a dog at a restaurant they don't believe is really a "real" service dog, varieties complain their neighbors have a pet in a "no pet" building because they claimed the animal is esa doctors.

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

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

For one, it may it harder to navigate bureaucracy of the world when your claim of the disability and your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. If a landlord or company owner has heard negative stories claiming that some people are abusing the device, it can cause these phones look suspiciously at all claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun seeking proof of status, although asking for written or another evidence is not always legal, and although many those who own legitimate service animals and emotional support animals haven't taken advantage of registering them, and so have no such documentation to make.

It is the suspicious attitude and illegal demands of some landlords and business owners 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 once the owner can produce a simple document that may often match the owner or landlord. Also, when utilizing public spaces, it is usually easier to give a document having a simple sentence stating, "This is really a service animal" and letting the other party browse the information, as opposed to having a long-winded protracted conversation (or worse yet, argument) in public places, with onlookers listening in and gathering round the discussion.

So, perform some people scam the system, or game the law? Sadly, the reply is "probably yes." In life, there is always room for abuse the ones can make an effort to take advantage of many systems that people as a society put in place to protect the rights of people who need such protection. For example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to take advantage of free and convenient parking. As well as the number of people that lie on their own 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, is arguably a very small price to pay when compared to the higher purpose of promoting access and equality for all.

In the end, you can't 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 make sure that the disabled in the great condition of California have equal access under law.