Service animals

Service animals, also known as "assistance animals," are defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as "dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities." Such tasks include serving as a guide for blind people, pulling a wheelchair, reminding a person to take medication, and other work that allows a person to engage in fundamental day-to-day life activities. For the most part, service animals are dogs, but since the mid-1990s, miniature horses have also been trained to provide help for specific tasks like navigation and represent a longer-lived alternative to dogs, to which some have cultural objections.

The right of a person with emotional or physical disabilities to use a service animal was established by the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Although the types of activities that service animals can assist with are wide-ranging, the most basic physical activities include walking, reaching, retrieving, seeing, hearing, lifting, communicating, and interacting socially. These animals can help keep the owner’s attention focused and directed. Moreover, service animals provide clear structure to the lives of those with disabilities and can monitor and ensure appropriate medication intake. In addition, these animals can assist in far more basic life activities, including bathing, eating, toileting, and even navigating.

Service animals provide their owners with a significant measure of freedom. Indeed, fundamental provisions of the ADA, including the rights to a service animal, are intended to provide people with disabilities the right to independence, security, and personal safety, and to guarantee the right to access critical public facilities, including workplaces, schools, and transportations systems.

Background

In general, a doctor does not need to sign off on a patient’s disability or validate the need for a service animal, and under the ADA, owners only need to disclose the fact that it is a service animal due to disability and the task or work the animal performs. The variety of conditions for which service animals have been used include cancer, limb amputation, blindness, deafness, disorders of the nervous system (including cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and paralysis), debilitating bone diseases, diabetes, heart disease, migraine headaches, and epilepsy. Service animals more recently have been provided for those with neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, as well as long-term psychiatric conditions, such as depression, anxiety disorders, and, most notably, war-related post-traumatic stress disorder. In some instances, such as requesting the service animal ride in an airplane cabin, those with psychiatric service animals may be required to produce paperwork documenting their disability and the need for the animal to be with them.

Service animals are not to be confused with therapy animals or emotional support animals (ESAs), which are animals, including most types of domestic pets, provided to help people with psychiatric disorders. ESAs lack the specialized training that service animals receive and are not required to perform routine tasks. They must be allowed in housing and on airplanes, according to other federal laws, but they can be refused in other contexts where service animals would be allowed. The number of Americans with emotional support animals has risen significantly in the twenty-first century. According to the National Service Animal Registry, people owning ESAs rose from around 65,000 in 2015 to over 240,000 in 2024. Airlines have likewise reported seeing a 75–80 percent increase in ESAs on airplanes in the late 2010s.

Professionally trained service dogs often receive more than a year’s training in obedience protocols, and learn to distinguish specific sights and sounds and develop appropriate social interaction skills. Depending on the program, they may then receive two to four months of additional intensive training in guidance and response skills and in learning how to work with a standard leash and harness. Even after the dog is licensed or certified and is matched with an appropriate owner, that arrangement is given a probationary period to ensure that the match is viable and that the selected owner can maintain appropriate control over the dog. Owners are also responsible for the animal’s feeding, cleanliness, and medical care.

Service animals do not need to be professionally trained, be registered with the government, or wear identifying harnesses, leashes, or tags; however, owners must comply with all local vaccination, licensing, or registration requirements for dogs generally.

Impact

The ADA permits owners of service animals to bring their leashed dogs into four broad areas: any workplace; any building that provides state or federal government programs or services (including schools and universities); public places (which can include parks, theaters, restaurants, exercise facilities, museums, hotels, and stores); and transportation, including buses, taxis and ride-share vehicles, and airplanes. These places must allow for service animals without penalizing the owners in the form of some charge. Two areas not specifically protected and, hence, not required to provide accommodations for service animal use include houses of worship and any private club.

Dogs selected for professional service training—predominantly larger breeds such as Labradors and golden retrievers—are generally schooled in a specific response protocols. These specific areas include seeing eye; hearing response; social signal response (such as directing and regulating interaction with people); seizure relief (these dogs bark to remind owners to medicate or, should medication lapse, can either stand guard over the affected owner in a medical crisis or can go for help); and service (other duties such as retrieval or pressing buttons). Kennels stress that training dogs across services can be difficult.

Because owners bring dogs into public spaces, the ADA (and the considerable range of lawsuits and settlements since 1990) have also established rights for those not using the service animal. If the owner of the service animal cannot adequately control the animal—with constant barking or growling, for instance—the animal’s presence can be challenged. If the animal is not housebroken, it can be denied entry to or be removed from a public space. However, if people in the immediate environment into which the animal is brought have allergic reactions, accommodation must be made to allow the owner to maintain the animal. Likewise, others’ fear cannot be used to justify exclusion. Often, such situations are resolved by having the service animal and the affected person occupy opposite ends of a room or different rooms within the establishment. Similarly, due to public health concerns, a service dog may not be allowed in a public pool but must be allowed to remain on the pool deck in case of emergency. Indeed, more than anything else, the national service animal policy seeks to balance the needs and rights of people with disabilities with those of people without disabilities.

Bibliography

"ADA Requirements: Service Animals." ADA.gov. United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, 28 Feb. 2020, www.ada.gov/resources/service-animals-2010-requirements/. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.

Animals and Your Health: The Power of Pets to Heal Our Pain, Help Us Cope and Improve Our Well-Being. Spec. issue of Time (Apr. 2016): n. pag. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.

Brennan, Jacquie. "Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals: Where Are They Allowed and Under What Conditions?" Ed. Vinh Nguyen. ADA National Network. Southwest ADA Center, 2014. Web. 22 Aug. 2016.

Duffly, Zachary. "Psychiatric Service Dogs & Emotional Support Animals: Access to Public Places and Other Settings." NOLO, 11 Sept. 2024, www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/psychiatric-service-dogs-emotional-support-animals-access-public-places-settings.html. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.

Harrison, Sara. "Are We Lying to Ourselves About Emotional-Support Animals?" The Cut, New York Magazine, 12 Aug. 2024, www.thecut.com/article/emotional-support-animals-vets.html. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.

"Service Animals." ADA.gov. United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, /www.ada.gov/topics/service-animals/. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.