Service Animals, Emotional Support, and Guide Dogs9047845

Sadly, many people are asking whether "service animal" laws are 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 believe to be abusing the machine. You hear some complain they had to sit near your pet dog at a restaurant that they don't believe is a "real" service dog, or others complain that the neighbors use a pet inside a "no pet" building simply because they claimed your pet is emotional support animal.

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

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

For one, it could it more difficult to navigate bureaucracy of the world when your claim of a disability along with your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. In case a landlord or business proprietor has heard negative stories claiming that some individuals are abusing the system, it can cause these phones look suspiciously at all claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun seeking proof of status, even though asking for written or another evidence isn't necessarily legal, and even though many people who just love legitimate service animals and emotional support animals never have taken advantage of registering them, and so have no such documentation to produce.

It is the suspicious attitude and illegal demands of some landlords and companies that make registrations services like 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 when the owner can produce a simple document which will often fulfill the owner or landlord. Also, when working with public spaces, it is often easier to give over a document with a simple sentence stating, "This is a service animal" and letting another party browse 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, perform some people scam the system, or game what the law states? Sadly, the reply is "probably yes." In everyday life, there is always room for abuse the ones can attempt to take advantage of many systems that individuals as a society set up to protect the rights of those that need such protection. For example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to benefit from free and convenient parking. Not forgetting the number of people who lie on the 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, is arguably a very small investment when compared to the higher objective of promoting access and equality for many.

In the end, you can't 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 the disabled within the great condition of California have equal access under law.