If you have a disability, you may be considering getting emotional support animal. Before you do, it’s essential to understand the different types of service and support animals and your rights under state and federal laws.
Simply because a dog wears a vest identifying it as a service dog may or may grant you the rights afforded service animals under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This blog explains the types of service and support animals and your legal rights as their owner. Also described are the emotional support animal disability qualifications to help you decide if it is the type of assistance, you need and whether you meet ESA eligibility criteria.
Animals Helping People
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a service animal trained to perform tasks on behalf of a person who is disabled. The tasks must have a relationship to the disability of its owner. Examples of service animals that meet the ADA definition include:
- Guide dogs are trained to assist someone who is blind or has severe visual impairment.
- Hearing dogs perform tasks, including alerting doorbells or telephones ringing, on behalf of someone who is deaf or has difficulty hearing.
- Epilepsy or Seizure Response dogs receive training to recognize signs of an impending seizure and help the person to a safe place.
- Psychiatric Service dogs are trained to assist someone with a mental disability by alerting if their owner demonstrates poor judgment or by comforting them during an anxiety or panic attack.
Emotional support animals are not trained to do specific acts, so they do not meet the ADA service animal criteria. They may not be serving animals, but ESAs provide valuable emotional support, comfort, companionship, and other forms of therapeutic benefit to a person with a mental health condition.
Another distinction between service and emotional support animals is laws generally limit service animals to dogs, except that the ADA definition of service animal includes dogs and miniature horses. Unless the law of the state where you live says otherwise, any type of animal can be an ESA.
Benefits Afforded Service and Emotional Support Animals Under Federal Law
ADA prohibits public places from denying access to people with service dogs. Public areas include restaurants, hotels, retail establishments, government buildings, colleges and universities, and airports. Someone with an ESA does not have the same access to public places under the ADA, but a person with an ESA may have rights granted by other federal statutes as well as state laws.
Public places typically include areas or locations open to the general public, such as retail establishments, hotels, theaters, hospitals and medical centers, and airports or other transportation facilities. It’s important to check the laws in your state to determine the rules for ESAs. For example, zoos in California may limit service dogs to areas where a barrier separates the general public and zoo animals, but free kennel facilities must be provided for the service dog while its owner visits the facility.
The Fair Housing Act requires landlords, universities, and other housing providers to reasonably accommodate individuals with service animals and ESAs. The dog or other animal must provide assistance related to the owner’s disability.
Another federal law, the Air Carrier Access Act, states that airlines must allow service animals on flights to assist passengers with disabilities, but different rules apply to ESAs. Commercial airlines may impose reasonable restrictions on ESAs. Current regulations allow airlines to treat ESAs as pets, which may include payment of an extra charge or the use of a crate to contain the animal during a flight.
Disabilities Qualifying for ESAs
Answers to questions about who qualifies for emotional support animal can be found in federal and state laws. Generally, the mental health conditions for ESA qualification include the following:
ESAs qualifying disabilities depends on a psychiatrist, psychologist, or other medical or mental health professional providing written documentation of the owner’s condition. The documentation, which can be as simple as a letter, must state the need of the owner for the assistance or benefits a service or emotional support animal provides.
Although the ADA does not recognize emotional support animals as service dogs, some mental health conditions may allow an ESA to be classified as a service dog and afford the protection of the ADA. For instance, if a dog calms a person during an anxiety attack, the ADA permits it to be classified as a service dog, provided it has received training to sense the onset of an anxiety attack and act to lessen its effect.
Get Help with Disability Claims
People with ESA qualifying disabilities who cannot work may be eligible for disability benefits through the Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance programs of the Social Security Administration. Sackett and Associates have been helping people with disabilities in Northern California and throughout the country with disability claims for more than four decades. Contact Sackett Law today for a free consultation.
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