Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs3520041

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 pet dog at a restaurant which they don't believe can be a "real" service dog, forms of languages complain that their neighbors possess a pet in a "no pet" building since they claimed your pet is emotional support animal letter.

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

How can this affect those who legitimately own and employ a service animal to better their lives? In several ways.

For one, it can it more difficult to navigate bureaucracy around the globe when your claim of a disability as well as your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. If a landlord or company owner has heard negative stories claiming that some individuals are abusing the system, it can cause these to look suspiciously at all claimants.

Some landlord and business people have begun asking for proof of status, even though asking for written or other evidence is not always legal, although many those who own legitimate service animals and emotional support animals never have 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 fundamental to legitimate owners.

Although registration is optional, it will also help shortcut the housing rental and business access issues when the owner can certainly produce a simple document which will often fulfill the owner or landlord. Also, when utilizing public spaces, it is usually easier to hand over a document having a simple sentence stating, "This is really a service animal" and letting one other party read the information, rather than having a long-winded protracted conversation (or even worse, argument) in public places, with onlookers listening in and gathering round the discussion.

So, perform some people scam the device, or game regulations? 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 individuals as a society set up to protect the rights of those who need such protection. For instance, 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 shop return policies, or do other bad acts.

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

In the end, you cannot control any system making it 100% abuse proof. So tolerating the few people who scam service animal laws will be the price we gladly pay to ensure that the disabled inside the great state of California have equal access under law.