Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals, and Guide Dogs8210087

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

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 they had to sit near a dog at a restaurant which they don't believe can be a "real" service dog, forms of languages complain that the neighbors have a pet in the "no pet" building simply because they claimed the animal is emotional support animal letter.

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

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

For one, it can it harder to navigate bureaucracy on the planet when your claim of a disability as well as your service or emotional support animal's status is questioned. In case a landlord or business owner has heard negative stories claiming that some people are abusing the device, it can cause them to look suspiciously at all claimants.

Some landlord and companies have begun requesting proof of status, although asking for written or other evidence is not always legal, and although many owners of legitimate service animals and emotional support animals have not taken advantage of registering them, and so have no such documentation to make.

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

Although registration is optional, it can benefit shortcut the housing rental and business access issues if the owner can create a simple document that will often match the owner or landlord. Also, when using public spaces, it is usually easier to give 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, with onlookers listening in and gathering around the discussion.

So, perform some people scam the device, or game regulations? Sadly, the reply is "probably yes." In life, there is always room for abuse and people 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. As an example, many drivers falsely display disabled parking placards to benefit from free and convenient parking. Not forgetting the number of people who lie on their own tax returns, claim improper tax deductions, abuse store return policies, or do other bad acts.

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

In the end, you can't control any system making it 100% abuse proof. So tolerating the few individuals who scam service animal laws is the price we gladly pay to ensure that the disabled inside the great condition of California have equal access under law.