What exactly is an Emotional Support Animal?
Humans love animals. We love having a pet that we come home to and it's beyond excited to see us! We love having a furry little friend that we can cuddle and play with! We love having a little fur baby that doesn't talk back to us! But a lot of us get to a point in our lives where we have to say goodbye to our little friend. That's right, college. Moving out for the first time into an apartment that doesn't let us bring our little fuzzball with us. You get to college and what do you see? People have pets! You're shocked and jealous and decide that you need to report them. You go to your apartment manager and they reply, "Oh, no, they have an ESA. They're allowed to have them." What the heck is an ESA? Is this just some easy get around in order to have your pet?
The answer is no.
First and foremost, a distinction must be made between a pet and an Emotional Support Animal. An Emotional Support Animal (ESA) is not a pet, it is required to maintain a person's mental health. In fact, a letter is required from a certified psychiatrist or therapist in order for you to say that an animal is your ESA. This animal's purpose is not to be a cuddly friend but to provide actual relief from symptoms. Some reasons people get ESA's are to help provide them with a purpose and to help them feel necessary. Without such an animal, people can feel more suicidal and more isolated.
"Under the Fair Housing Act, housing providers are obligated to permit, as a reasonable accommodation, the use of animals that work, provide assistance, or perform tasks that benefit persons with a disability, or provide emotional support to alleviate a symptom or effect of a disability (ada)."
What does this mean?
Basically, it means that there are certain disabilities that require assistance from an animal. That assistance can be to perform a task or to provide support to ease a symptom of the disability. These animals cannot be barred from housing.
Another important distinction needing to be made is between an ESA and a registered service animal. A registered service animal is "a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person's disability (ada)." In recent years, this has been extended to include miniature horses. An ESA can be many different kinds of animals, "includ[ing] dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, ferrets, birds, monkeys, bearded dragons, and pigs, etc (register)."
Why is this important?
Well, the Americans With Disabilities Act specifically allows service animals into places that an ESA is not allowed. Places like schools, grocery stores, banks, etc. These animals are required more for the physical safety of the owner, versus mental health.
Like ESA's the only questions that can be asked about these animals by the staff of such places are: (1) is the [animal] a service animal required because of a disability? and (2) what work or task has the [animal] been trained to perform? The biggest difference is an ESA cannot answer the second question. An ESA is not trained to perform a certain task. If you're an ESA owner, please remember that your animal should be staying home.
Overall, if you're looking for science to back the need for an ESA, you'll find many different studies that all conclude that more research needs to be done. But if you ask someone who has an ESA why they need it, they'll likely tell you that they need it in order to get up in the morning day after day, or that they need them to help them to let go of bottled-up stress, or they need them to help ease panic attacks or a combination of that and more reasons.
For those who have gone through the process of obtaining an ESA it's so much more than the animal looks cute. It's about your health and that's a serious matter for them. Please remember that you are not in their head and should not be making judgments on if they need the animal or not.
For those who are abusing the system that provides relief to those struggling with mental illness, please stop. Your pet is not an ESA and you are making it incredibly hard for those who actually need them.
Lastly, for those who are reporting any animal you see that you think isn't a service animal and you think it isn't fair. It's not fair that those people are struggling with disorders you may never know about. End the stigma about ESA's.
Learn More:
Emotional Support Animal Requirements. Register My Service Animal, www.registermyserviceanimal.com/emotional-support-animal-requirements.html.
Frequently Asked Questions about Service Animals and the ADA. US Department of Justice, www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html.
Photo courtesy of Canva.com
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