Emotional Support Animals: Overview

Introduction

In late January 2018, photographs and video of a woman bringing a full-grown male peacock into Newark Liberty International Airport made international news. The woman, an artist known as Ventiko, claimed that she had purchased a seat for the bird on her United Airlines flight and that she had a right to fly with the peacock as it was her emotional support animal. United Airlines did not allow the woman and her peacock on board, reinvigorating a long-standing debate about the appropriate role of emotional support animals on airplanes. Airlines are not the only institutions wrestling with the problem of how to deal with a proliferation of these cases. An emotional support animal is a type of assistance animal for which housing providers must make “reasonable accommodations” under the federal Fair Housing Act. This means that the animal is exempt from certain restrictions in housing that apply to other pets, such as increased security and damage waivers and size restrictions. This also means that in cases where having pets is banned outright, owners of emotional support animals can demand a waiver if certain criteria are met.

Emotional support animals differ from service animals, which are governed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and must meet stringent training requirements. Legally, a service animal must be a dog, although in certain cases, miniature horses are allowed “where reasonable” under the ADA. The law allows service dogs to go anywhere their owners can go. Most commonly, service animals guide those who are blind or deaf, alert and protect their owners during seizures, and/or help their owners cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The restrictions and training requirements for emotional support animals, or ESAs, differ substantially from those for service animals. Owners have presented pigs, chickens, turkeys, cats, and dogs with no specific training as support animals. Owners must produce a letter from a licensed therapist or physician documenting the need for the animal, although a quick search of the internet reveals dozens of companies that specialize in producing such letters and offering phone consultations and special badges, harnesses, and certificates. Critics argue that owners are using loose emotional support animal rules to gain special access for ordinary pets and to skirt pet fees and restrictions. Some businesses have tightened their restrictions on emotional support animals after numerous incidents and complaints. Others argue that the support these animals provide is crucial for those with emotional and psychological disorders.

Understanding the Discussion

Air Carrier Access Act: A 1986 law that prohibits commercial airlines from discriminating against passengers with disabilities.

Emotional support animal (ESA): A broad term referring to an animal that helps an individual with a mental health disorder by providing companionship, relieving stress or anxiety, or offering other forms of support.

Fair Housing Act: A law, part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, that prohibits discrimination in housing, including the refusal to sell or rent a dwelling, to any person because of race, color, disability, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin. Disability as a protected class was added in 1988.

Psychiatric service dog: A specific kind of service dog trained to perform tasks to assist people with psychiatric disorders, such as severe depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

Rehabilitation Act, Section 504: The section of a 1973 law that prohibits disability discrimination in programs receiving federal funding, including housing; considered a forerunner of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Service animal: An animal, usually a dog, trained to perform specific tasks to help people with disabilities, such as leading a blind person.

History

The history of the emotional support animal debate lies in Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. This was the first civil rights law in the United States concerning people with disabilities, and prohibited discrimination in programs, including housing, that receive federal funding. In 1981, in the landmark case of Majors v. Housing Authority of the County of DeKalb, Georgia, Section 504 was used by a tenant of a “no-pets” housing authority apartment to argue that her dog was necessary to her because of her history of mental illness. The housing authority, which had refused to waive the pet prohibition, had begun eviction proceedings. The tenant argued that the ability to keep her animal was a reasonable accommodation for her disability and that she had been unfairly deprived of public services because of her disability. The tenant lost in federal district court, but on appeal, the court found that allowing the tenant to have the dog as an emotional support animal would not place an undue burden on the housing authority and would allow the tenant to enjoy the benefits of the public program.

Legislation since this case has been complicated, however, with courts generally upholding the right of disabled people to have an emotional support animal but ruling inconsistently on the level of medical documentation required, the definition of reasonable accommodations, and the appropriateness of other assistance that could obviate the need for an emotional support animal. In 1996, for example, a Massachusetts trial court determined that more reasonable accommodations could replace an emotional support animal and therefore ruled against the tenant. Courts have also ruled the distress and anxiety that would occur if an animal is removed from its owner to be insufficient grounds for a reasonable accommodation claim.

Section 504 applies only to housing that receives some level of federal funding, but since 1988, with the passage of the Fair Housing Act Amendments, discrimination in private housing against people with disabilities has also been prohibited by law. With some exceptions, this extended protection to all forms of housing for people with disabilities.

The Air Carrier Access Act of 1988 prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities on commercial airlines, and airlines began to modify their pet policy to allow passengers with service animals and with emotional support animals, provided that certain criteria were met. Owners had to have appropriate documentation in a letter from a therapist or other medical professional, and the animal could not be dangerous or interfere with other passengers. Although “unusual animals” could be prohibited, such as snakes and other reptiles, along with some insects, there was no species-specific regulation. Emotional support animals were not required to be caged, and there was no additional fee for their transportation.

In a 2014 article in the New Yorker, writer Patricia Marx conducted a social experiment where she brought a variety of animals—a turtle, a pig, and a turkey, among others—into public places and businesses and demanded accommodation based on documentation easily available on the internet. Marx was able to demonstrate how confusing regulations about emotional support animals can be, as she was allowed on a bus, into numerous restaurants and museums, and on an airplane with dubious documentation and questionable animal companions. She also revealed that she had many friends and acquaintances who admitted to passing off a pet as an emotional support animal. Whether to avoid security deposits, housing restrictions, boarding and airline fees, caging rules, or size restrictions, many people find motivation to pass off a beloved pet as an emotional support animal. Certainly, emotional support animals on airlines skyrocketed after 2000. In a 2018 press release announcing more stringent regulations for service and support animals, Delta Airlines reported that it had been carrying 250,000 such animals annually. According to a 2021 Wall Street Journal report, between 2016 and 2019, the volume of passengers with emotional support animals on commercial flights more than doubled, from 540,000 to 1.1 million, while regular pet travel shot up to 1.4 million.

Emotional Support Animals Today

Legal protections for emotional support animals do not extend to public or private entities outside of housing and commercial airlines, and these animals have no rights greater than an ordinary family pet. However, confusion between emotional support animals and service animals, whose access is protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act, means that emotional support animals are often allowed into places where they do not have a legal right to be, such as museums, or where their presence is actually illegal, such as restaurants. Complicating matters further, psychiatric service dogs, specially trained to perform tasks that allow a person with mental illness to function, such as by alerting to missed medication, guiding a disoriented person, or protecting a person with post-traumatic stress disorder, are covered by the ADA. However, they are difficult to distinguish from an emotional support animal. The difference between a service animal and an emotional support animal is in its training to perform specific tasks, a difference that may be difficult to identify because of a lack of standardized identification requirements.

Amid a surge in emotional support animals on commercial airlines, a significant movement arose to restrict or further regulate their presence on flights. In 2018, following a string of well-publicized attacks by alleged emotional support animals, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that it would not penalize airlines for tightening their restrictions about how these animals are treated in flight. Several major airlines, including Delta, United, and American Airlines, did tighten their restrictions, requiring passengers to present certification that their animals can behave appropriately in flight, in addition to letters of medical necessity. The DOT ultimately ruled in December 2020 that airlines do not have to accommodate emotional support animals. Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, United, Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest Airlines quickly moved to ban emotional support animals from their flights, although they would allow passengers to pay to bring pets and keep them in carriers; the rule change did not affect trained service dogs, however. The Humane Society had advocated unsuccessfully for other assistance animals to be allowed, and critics feared the regulation would hamper travel for people with disabilities, particularly those allergic to dogs. Grocery stores, food-service establishments, and hotels, among other businesses, also began cracking down.

Getting around did become more difficult, even for travelers with trained service dogs. The DOT received nearly four times as many service animal–related complaints from people with disabilities in 2022 as it had in 2018, before the rules change. Contributing to the problem were airlines' differing interpretations and enforcement of the rule, often-inaccessible forms, and third-party processing. Critics also allege that the requirements were too vague to prevent travelers from passing untrained dogs off as service animals. Some blind advocacy groups called for a new registry approach that would enable a service animal to be vetted once by the government.

At the same time, emotional support animals have become more prevalent in US society during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, which had widespread mental health impacts. Consequently, college campuses saw an uptick in the number of ESA requests from students, as did employers reopening their physical workspaces.

These essays and any opinions, information, or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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