Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs6460904

Sadly, some individuals are asking whether "service animal" laws are now being abused by those that want to scam the system.

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 a dog at a restaurant which they don't believe can be a "real" service dog, or others complain their neighbors use a pet in the "no pet" building because they claimed the animal is esa doctors.

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

How can this affect people who legitimately own and use a service animal to higher their lives? In many ways.

For one, it may it more difficult to navigate bureaucracy of the world when your claim of your disability along with your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. If your landlord or business owner has heard negative stories claiming that some people are abusing the machine, it can cause these to look suspiciously at all claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun seeking proof of status, although asking for written or any other evidence is not always legal, and even though many owners of legitimate service animals and emotional support animals have not taken advantage of registering them, and therefore have no such documentation to make.

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

Although registration is optional, it will also help shortcut the housing rental and business access issues once the owner can create a simple document that may often match the owner or landlord. Also, when working with public spaces, it is often easier to hand over a document with a simple sentence stating, "This is a service animal" and letting another party read the information, as opposed to having a long-winded protracted conversation (or worse, argument) in public, with onlookers listening in and gathering round the discussion.

So, perform some people scam the device, or game the law? Sadly, the answer then is "probably yes." In your life, there is always room for abuse and individuals can make an effort to take advantage of many systems that people as a society set up to protect the rights of those who need such protection. As an example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to benefit from free and convenient parking. Not forgetting the number of people who lie on their tax returns, claim improper tax deductions, abuse store return policies, or do other bad acts.

However that percentage of abuse, which in service animal laws is hopefully small, is arguably a very small price to pay when compared to the higher goal of promoting access and equality for all.

In the end, you can't control any system making 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 within the great state of California have equal access under law.