What are they?
An emotional support animal is exactly what it sounds like – an animal that provides you with emotional support. Your pet, for example, qualifies as an emotional support animal. If your pet is of any comfort emotionally to you at all – for example, if having your pet around makes you feel supported, eases your loneliness and calms you down – then it is definitely an Emotional Support Animal.
Your pet qualifies as an Emotional Support Animal
An emotional support animal can be any kind of animal – a goat, a pig, a guinea pig – anything at all. So long as it is of emotional support to you, it qualifies.
How do Emotional Support Animals differ from Service Dogs and Therapy Dogs?
A Service Dog has been trained for a long time to be of particular benefit to a particular disability. The disability can be physical or psychiatric in nature.
A person with vision problems, for example, may use a Service Dog to help them get around in the community.
People suffering from psychiatric illness can also have Service Dog. A person with PTSD or anxiety could have a Service Dog with them that senses when they are extremely stressed. These kinds of Service Dogs will be trained to provide some kind of indication to the person that they are in distress, as well as helping the person deal with the distress. For example, if someone doesn’t like being crowded by people, the dog will put itself between the person and other people.
Service Dogs hold a very high status in society. A service dog can go anywhere – in a library, in a supermarket, in any store, on a plane or bus, etc. Other kinds of pets can not.
Emotional Support Animals do not need to receive any training at all
Therapy Dogs are trained to provide comfort and affection to people assisted living situations, nursing homes and schools.
Because Emotional Service Dogs are not providing a specific function to a person with a Disability, and they are not automatically allowed in public spaces, they do not need any special training at all.
What privileges do Emotional Support animals have?
An Emotional Support Animal is officially deemed by a medical professional or a Psychiatrist to be of help to a person with a psychiatric illness – i.e they help the person deal with symptoms of their disorder. In fact, they can even be licensed by a Doctor of Psychiatrist.
Emotional Support Animals are not afforded the same status by law
However, Emotional Support Animals are not afforded the same status by law. There is a Discrimination Act that states Service Dogs should be allowed into all kinds of public spaces. Failure of an establishment to do so can result in legal action. 1
An Emotional Assistance or Therapy Animal, however, may not be allowed into those spaces.
Each individual establishment will have its own rules regarding whether you can bring your dog inside
People can ask for a doctor, psychologist or psychiatrist to write them a letter advocating for the use of an emotional support animal, and this letter can be used to present to Landlords, who may then allow people to keep their pets during your tenancy. This letter can also be used to ask establishments for permission for a pet to be allowed inside. Each individual establishment will have its own rules regarding whether these dogs can be brought inside, and sometimes it’s up to discretion.
Please be mindful of this and do the right thing and ask first before you bring your Emotional Support Dog into a building or onto transport! Other people may have serious allergies or be afraid of certain animals, and it’s not fair to others to put them through undue distress.
Training of Assistance Dogs
Service Dogs are trained to toilet on command! They are trained not to do things in public places that other dogs may do, such as chew furniture, go to the toilet on the floor, bark incessantly at people, etc. They are also trained to be friendly to other animals.
This kind of training, as well as the training to provide assistance for particular disabilities, takes a long time and costs a lot of money! It also requires a high level of dedication from trainers, animal behaviourists, and volunteers. That’s why there is such a distinction, both legally and in the community, between Service Dogs and other types of animals.
Beneficial
All in all, despite the difference in legal status and training, Emotional Support Animals are completely beneficial. They can help people to gain tenancy with their pets, and they can be taken to some places, so long as permission is otained from the owner/manager of the establishment.
But most importantly, they offer emotional support! And who doesn’t need that?
- This information is based on Australian Laws ↩︎
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