Does Your Pet Qualify as an Emotional Support Animal?

Do you wish you could take your furry companion with you when you travel to calm your nerves and keep you balanced? It’s possible if you know the right info and learn how to get your pet certified as an ESA. Read below for answers to all your questions about Emotional Support Animals.

What is an ESA?

Mental health care has made leaps and bounds in progress in the past few years, with new treatments gaining popularity at a rapid rate. One of those key advancements is the inception of ESAs. These animals are everywhere you look, on the plane, in your apartment complex and even in the dorm rooms of colleges around the country. But what are they? What do they do?

This is everything you need to know about ESAs

ESA: What Does it Stand For?

You’ve probably seen this abbreviation a whole bunch, and maybe you’ve been wondering what it means. ESA simply stands for emotional support animal. These animals have a very important job of supporting those living with a mental health disability.

What Do Emotional Support Animals Do?

Emotional support animals are therapy animals that provide generalized support to individuals who are struggling with a range of mental health conditions. These animals provide a generalized source of emotional support to those who have mental health concerns and are prescribed to patients by a licensed mental health professional.

ESA VS Service Dog: Is There a Difference?

The short simple answer to this? Yes. Emotional support animals are not service animals. The two classifications mean that they have different roles and rights.

Service Dogs and Animals

Service animals are highly trained with a specific focus, in order to help improve their owner’s quality of life and to keep them safe and secure. Service animals are usually dogs, but can sometimes be miniature horses. There are a range of specialties that service animals are trained in. Some of the main tasks that service animals undertake include:

• Assisting individuals who are blind or have low vision with navigation and other tasks
• Alerting individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing to the presence of people or sounds
• Providing non-violent protection or rescue work
• Pulling a wheelchair
• Assisting an individual during a seizure
• Alerting individuals to the presence of allergens
• Retrieving items such as medicine or the telephone
• Providing physical support and assistance with balance and stability to individuals with mobility disabilities
• Helping individuals with psychiatric and neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors
• Assisting those with autism
• Assisting those with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
• Service animals take months to trains and are resource and labor-intensive, therefore they are reserved for use in the above cases where special training is needed.

Emotional Support Animals

Emotional support animals, on the other hand, are not required to have any specific training and can be used for a wide range of mental health issues. Technically, any animal can be classified as an emotional support animal, however, the most common types are dogs and cats. Because they do not need specific training, any animal can act as an emotional support animal. Pets from breeders, shelters and rehabilitated pets can serve as ESAs, making them accessible to those in need.

Different Laws for Different Helpers: Laws Covering Service Animals VS Emotional Support Animals

Another key difference between service animals and emotional support animals are the laws which cover them.

Service animals are heavily protected by the American Disability Act (ADA) which ensures that service animal owners are able to go anywhere with their animal. Emotional support animals are protected by two laws: the Aircraft Carrier Access Act (ACAA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHA).

The ACAA allows ESA owners to travel on aircraft with their animal (however this is subject to the policy of the individual airline) and the FHA permits owners to access accommodation that is otherwise pet-free with their ESA.  

Unlike service dogs under the ADA, these laws do not protect the rights of ESAs in private property. This means that many shops, hotels, and restaurants do not allow ESAs on the premises.

Mental Health and ESAs

The primary role of ESAs is to soothe the symptoms of mental health problems in patients by providing a generally supportive presence. Pets have a whole plethora of positive effects on our brains and psychological state, making them a safe, natural and effective therapy for many conditions.

Some of the mental health problems that can be helped by ESAs include:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Fear/phobias
• Panic disorder/panic attacks
• Mood disorders
• Personality disorders
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Social anxiety disorder
• Addiction issues

These special animals help to heal those with mental health issues by affecting both the chemistry of the brain and the psychology of the individual. If you are experiencing one of these conditions, you can inquire with your therapist about using a pet as an emotional support animal.

Emotional support animals are a huge help to those that are suffering from mental illness. The perfect accessible, inexpensive and natural therapy aid, they have changed many lives for the better.

While they have often been given a hard time by the media, legitimate ESAs prescribed by a licensed professional can potentially be a life-saving treatment for those who are struggling with mental health problems. If you think you or someone you know could be helped by an emotional support animal, talk to a therapist to find out your options (here is more information as well as how to ask your doctor about an emotional support animal).