Are Emotional Support Animals Service Animals
Service Animals vs Emotional Support Animals
Service animals are classified differently than emotional support animals. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), “Assistance animals are not pets. There are two types of assistance animals: (1) service animals, and (2) other animals that do work, perform tasks, provide assistance, and/or provide therapeutic emotional support for individuals with disabilities.” HUD guidelines state that only dogs are considered service animals, while support animals can be a “dog, cat, small bird, rabbit, hamster, gerbil, other rodent, fish, turtle, or other small, domesticated animal that is traditionally kept in the home.” Other animals can be considered support animals if the owner is allergic to dogs, the task the support animal performs can’t be completed by a dog, or if the symptoms of the individual’s disability will be significantly increased without the animal. Service animals must be trained to perform a specific task, while emotional support animals can provide support simply by virtue of their presence.
Service Animals
Under Florida Statute 413.08, service animals are entitled to “full and equal access to housing.” The statute defines a service animal as,
“an animal that is trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. The work done or tasks performed must be directly related to the individual’s disability and may include, but are not limited to, guiding an individual who is visually impaired or blind, alerting an individual who is deaf or hard of hearing, pulling a wheelchair, assisting with mobility or balance, alerting and protecting an individual who is having a seizure, retrieving objects, alerting an individual to the presence of allergens, providing physical support and assistance with balance and stability to an individual with a mobility disability, helping an individual with a psychiatric or neurological disability by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors, reminding an individual with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming an individual with posttraumatic stress disorder during an anxiety attack, or doing other specific work or performing other special tasks.”
Dogs of any size or breed can be classified as service animals. The Fair Housing Act requires housing providers (including management companies, HOAs, condo associations, and cooperatives) to make exceptions to pet policies in order to accommodate individuals with disabilities that utilize a service animal. HUD released a guide in 2020 to assist housing providers in Assessing a Person’s Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing Act. According to HUD’s Guide, housing providers are allowed to ask:
1) Is the animal a dog?
2) Is it readily apparent that the dog is trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability?
3) Is the animal required because of a disability?
4) What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?
If the respondent is able to identify a task that the dog performs, other than emotional support, the housing provider is required to make accommodations. Housing providers are not permitted to ask what the disability is.
Under the Fair Housing Act, a housing provider may request documentation to prove that a dog is a service animal when the disability and task that the dog is trained to perform are not immediately recognizable. While there are many online services that provide service animal documentation, most of these sites are not considered reliable sources. A letter from a licensed healthcare professional stating that the individual has a disability and/or requires a service animal is sufficient to request reasonable accommodations.
Emotional Support Animals
The Federal Housing Authority’s Assistance Animals Notice provides guidance for housing providers (including homeowner and condo associations) and individuals with disabilities to navigate the process of granting or denying reasonable accommodations for emotional support animals. In most cases, an individual will need to provide supporting documentation to prove that they have a disability and that the animal does indeed provide support.
Acceptable documentation to prove a disability include:
- A determination of disability from a federal, state, or local government agency.
- Receipt of disability benefits or services (Social Security Disability Income (SSDI)), Medicare or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for a person under age 65, veterans’ disability benefits, services from a vocational rehabilitation agency, or disability benefits or services from another federal, state, or local agency.
- Eligibility for housing assistance or a housing voucher received because of disability.
- Information confirming the disability from a health care professional – e.g., physician, optometrist, psychiatrist, psychologist, physician’s assistant, nurse practitioner, or nurse.
If the disability is non-observable, HUD states that “information from a licensed health care professional – e.g., physician, optometrist, psychiatrist, psychologist, physician’s assistant, nurse practitioner, or nurse – general to the condition but specific as to the individual with a disability and the assistance or therapeutic emotional support provided by the animal” must be provided or the housing provider may deny the request for reasonable accommodations for a support animal.
Florida Statute 760.27 defines an emotional support animal as “an animal that does not require training to do work, perform tasks, provide assistance, or provide therapeutic emotional support by virtue of its presence which alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person’s disability.” This statute requires that support animals remain compliant with state and local requirements for licensing and vaccinations.
Conclusion
While emotional support animals and service dogs are both classified as assistance animals, there are differences. Service animals are dogs that have been trained to complete a certain task in order to assist their owner with a disability. Emotional support animals can be a number of different species and they are not trained to provide specific services, instead, they provide emotional support by virtue of their presence to their owner with a disability.
If the task that a service dog performs is immediately observable, housing providers are legally bound to provide accommodation without supporting documentation. On the other hand, housing providers may request documentation to prove that the owner of an emotional support animal has a disability that is alleviated by the emotional support animal. However, housing providers are not legally permitted to ask what the disability is, just that a disability exists.
- This article is not intended to provide legal advice. Individuals should consult a lawyer and/or medical professional for guidance on service and emotional support animals.