Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs6339224

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

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 device. You hear some complain that they to sit near a dog at a restaurant which they don't believe is really a "real" service dog, forms of languages complain that the neighbors use a pet in the "no pet" building because they claimed the animal is emotional support animal.

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

So how exactly does this affect those who legitimately own and employ a service animal to raised their lives? In many ways.

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

Some landlord and business people 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 never have taken advantage of registering them, and thus have no such documentation to create.

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 vital to legitimate owners.

Although registration is optional, it can help shortcut the housing rental and business access issues if the owner can create a simple document which will often fulfill the owner or landlord. Also, when working with public spaces, it is often easier to hand over a document using a simple sentence stating, "This is really a service animal" and letting one other party read the information, instead of having a long-winded protracted conversation (or worse, argument) in public, with onlookers listening in and gathering around the discussion.

So, do some people scam the device, or game the law? Sadly, the reply is "probably yes." In your life, there is always room for abuse the ones can try to take advantage of many systems that we as a society put in place 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. As well as 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 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 those.

In the end, you can't control any system making it 100% abuse proof. So tolerating the few people 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.