Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs7788850

Sadly, some people 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 and other editorials where people rant and complain about people they think to be abusing the system. You hear some complain that they to sit near your pet dog at a restaurant which they don't believe is really a "real" service dog, forms of languages complain their neighbors possess a pet inside a "no pet" building because they claimed your pet is how to ask doctor for emotional support animal.

A few of the commentary posseses an indignant tone, and a few people are downright angry.

How does this affect those that 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 and your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. In case a landlord or business proprietor has heard negative stories claiming that some people are abusing the machine, it can cause these phones look suspiciously at all claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun asking for proof of status, despite the fact that asking for written or any other evidence is not always legal, and even though many people who just love legitimate service animals and emotional support animals never have taken advantage of registering them, and therefore have no such documentation to produce.

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

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

So, do some people scam the machine, or game regulations? Sadly, the reply is "probably yes." In everyday life, there is always room for abuse and people can make an effort to take advantage of many systems that we as a society put in place to protect the rights of those 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 people that lie on their own tax returns, claim improper tax deductions, abuse retail store return policies, or do other bad acts.

But that percentage of abuse, which around service animal laws is hopefully small, is arguably a very small investment when compared to the higher purpose of promoting access and equality for all.

In the end, you cannot control any system to make it 100% abuse proof. So tolerating the not enough people who scam service animal laws may be the price we gladly pay to make sure that the disabled in the great state of California have equal access under law.