Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs367018

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

There have been news stories, articles, opinion pieces as well as other editorials where people rant and complain about people they feel to be abusing the machine. You hear some complain they had to sit near your pet dog at a restaurant which they don't believe is a "real" service dog, forms of languages complain that the neighbors use a pet in the "no pet" building since they claimed the animal is emotional support animal registration.

Some of the commentary comes with an indignant tone, and a few people are downright angry.

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

For one, it could it more difficult to navigate bureaucracy on the planet when your claim of your disability along with your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. In case a landlord or company owner has heard negative stories claiming that some individuals are abusing the system, it can cause these to look suspiciously in any way claimants.

Some landlord and business owners have begun requesting proof of status, even though asking for written or another evidence isn't necessarily legal, and although many those who own 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 just like the Service Animal Registry of California so vital to legitimate owners.

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

So, carry out some people scam the device, or game what the law states? Sadly, the reply is "probably yes." In everyday life, there is always room for abuse and individuals can try to take advantage of many systems that individuals as a society set up to protect the rights of people who need such protection. As an example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to take advantage of free and convenient parking. As well as the number of folks who lie on their tax returns, claim improper tax deductions, abuse shop return policies, or do other bad acts.

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

In the end, you cannot control any system making it 100% abuse proof. So tolerating the not enough people 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.