ESA, Emotional Support Animals

Assistive animals are protected by special legal status as helper animals for people with physical and/or emotional disabilities. (Both emotional and physical disabilities are defined in federal disability law.  Get publicly available legal information here. Please note that disability law covers BOTH physical and mental/emotional disabilities.

There are all kinds of animal-assisted therapy. (see Beyond Guide Dogs: New Animal-Assisted Therapy).

Types of Assistive Animals (legally NOT pets).

1) Emotional support animals for assisting people who have mental health/emotional  disabilities or who have emotional components to serious physical conditions.  For instance, a study by the World Health Organization found that people who had arthritis, diabetes, angina, or asthma were more likely to suffer from depression than people without these conditions. 

ESAs are meant for use in the home setting. (The only exception is that the US Department of Transportation also allows ESAs on flights. See http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/rules/382short.pdf for more info. You need a service animal if you require other kinds of assistance outside the home.) Click here for information on the right to have emotional support animals for home use.

ESAs do not need specialized training to help with specific emotional conditions or to do specific tasks to assist their humans.  Dogs should have general obedience training, though.  Animals do NOT need to learn how to do the things they instinctively do to help calm people down, and reduce stress, anxiety and depression.  Little things like petting a companion animal, watching animals at play, having an animal nuzzle up to you are all therapeutic. 

Click here to read more about the right to have Emotional Support Animals. 

[NOTE: Citizens for Pets in Condos had attempted to file a bill in the Florida legislature to clarify the right to have emotional support animals, but new HUD rules make it easier to request and get an emotional support animal as a reasonable accomodation. What happened to the Emotional Support Animal bill? Click HERE to find out.]

"The Department of Justice explained an important distinction between a service animal for ADA purposes and a support animal for FHAA purposes. The new rules limit service animals to dogs, but that doesn’t mean that housing providers can prohibit the use of other animals as a reasonable accommodation for a disability pursuant to the FHAA.

"In the final rule, the Department excluded emotional support animals from the definition of "service animal." The ADA definition says that emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship will not qualify as “work” or “tasks” for the purposes of determining whether an animal is a service animal. Therefore, emotional support animals are not necessarily service animals (although a dog can qualify as both at the same time).  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development confirmed exactly that in a memorandum directed to fair housing enforcement officers and regional counsel." (source, Florida Condo Law Blog, Posted on March 10, 2011 by Lisa Magill). [Note - the memorandum from HUD says, "Disabled individuals may request a reasonable accommodation for assistance animals in addition to dogs, including emotional support animals, under the FHAct [fair housing act] or Section 504."]

See also, Recent Changes to ADA's Definition of Service Animals Do Not Apply to Community Associations.

2) Service animals are covered under the Americans with Disability Act, through the U.S Department of Justice. See http://www.ada.gov/svcanimb.htm. Service animals are used to assist people with physical (and emotional) disabilities, however, are generally required to be trained to do specific tasks, such as dogs for the blind or deaf, in additional to obedience training. Owners can train their own service dogs. Read more at http://www.ownertrainedsignaldogs.com. While other animals can be trained to do assistive tasks (even cats have been trained, eg., to press a button in an emergency), new ADA definitions now only allow dogs as service animals. It is obviously much more challenging to meet the requirements for a service animal than for an ESA.

Mick Walsh's service dog Jagger

Some uninformed condo managers and boards are not aware that there are other kinds of assistive animals allowed by law. They will ask, "What task(s) does the animal perform to assist you?" They are stuck in "old think" and only know about service animals and do not know about emotional support animals. If you can show you have a disabling condition and have a service animal, the courts will generally decide in your favor. It can take more effort and possibly more legal assistance to get an emotional support animal allowed.

3) Therapy pets for assisting people in the field. There are formal programs where animals are trained to work with strangers and in unfamiliar settings.  The training helps ensure that that the animals behave appropriately when out in public at schools, nursing homes, hospitals, etc.  (Some religious organizations and other groups arrange for members to bring their own household pets to institutions for similar therapeutic results.) Using the correct legal terminology can be very important. People have lost court cases trying to keep their assistive animals in their homes when they have labelled them therapy animals, rather than emotional support animals or service animals. Delta Society trains and certifies animals to be therapy pets. Therapy Dogs International provides a similar service but for dogs only and many local humane societies offer this kind of training, as well.

Pet Therapy:  Animals as Co-therapists

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For more information on this topic, especially on the first two categories - ESAs and service dogs, go to the National Service Animal Registry at http://nsarco.com. Certification is NOT required for ESAs, but it might make it easier for you to convince a board to let you keep your assistive animal.