Alicia Smith Speaks

“Dogs have masters, cats have staff” ~ Unknown

Definition: Pet owned by someone who is disabled and in need of emotional support, which is supported by his/her medical provider.

Legal Classification: Emotional Support Animal – pet with rights.

Requirements to qualify: Federal laws protect your right to have a companion animal if you have a disability and need the animal for assistance or emotional support, if you live in federally assisted housing for the elderly or handicapped, or if you live in public housing.

Several laws protect the right of people with disabilities to have emotional support animals, even when the landlord has a “no pets” policy. Those laws include:

• The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
• The Americans with Disabilities Act, Title II

www.ddal.org/pubs/bestfriends: One of the best resources around for Emotional Support Animals (ESA) is from the Doris Day Animal League, titled Best Friends for Life. This booklet explains the federal laws that protect your right to keep pets in all federally-assisted housing, and if you are disabled, your right to an assistive animal in all types of rental housing. Read more about emotional support animals here.

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” ~ Roger Caras

Definition: Therapy Animals are pets that have the right temperament to interact with a wide variety of people. Therapy Animals can be a dog, cat, bird, rabbit, horse or other animals accepted by the Therapy Animal organization you choose. However, the majority of Therapy animals are dogs.

Legal Classification: Pet. A Therapy Animal along with his/her handler has passed a Therapy Animal organizations’ testing. Most organizations will then consider the team to be Registered (not Certified) as having passed their requirements. Therapy Animal teams are invited in by organizations when there is a mutual benefit; the Team gets to work together visiting people (AAA) or aiding physical therapy (AAT) under the supervision of a medical professional, while adding a new, and nonjudgmental, dimension to their time together.

Requirements to Qualify: A willingness to offer your time as a volunteer and have a well-behaved, friendly animal that’s happy to travel and visit a variety of people. The handler will most likely be asked to attend a training program. Then the handler and the pet will be asked to pass a test. If both the handler and the animal pass then you will, with the help of the sponsoring organization, find a good mix for your schedule, your time limitation and that’s a good fit for both you and your pet.

Training: In most cases, if you and your dog can pass the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen® (CGC) Program test, then there is a good chance that your dog will pass the Therapy Animal Organization’s testing. Organizational testing for Therapy animals other than dogs, will be similar to the testing for dogs.  Read more about therapy animals here.

“Where there are rights, there are responsibilities.”  ~ Unknown

Definition: Service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, are notservice animals for the purposes of this definition. The work or tasks performed by a service animal must be directly related to the individual’s disability. Examples of work or tasks include, but are not limited to, 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 individuas with mobility disabilities, and helping persons with psychiatric and neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors.

Note: the above text is from the Department of Justice’s revised American’s with Disabilities Act, which became effective March 15, 2011.  These sections are only a small portion of this page http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleII_2010/titleII_2010_withbold.htm.

NOTE:  The crime deterrent effects of an animal’spresence and the provision of emotional support, wellbeing, comfort, or companionship DO NOT constitute work or tasks for the purposes of this definition.

Source: http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleII_2010/titleII_2010_withbold.htm

Legal Classification: A Service Dog is somewhat similar to a Medical Assistive Device such as oxygen, a cane or a wheel chair. Just as you would never ask someone to leave their oxygen tank or wheelchair outside, neither would you ask a Service Dog Handler to leave their trained dog outside.

Requirements to Qualify: Disability means, with respect to an individual, a physical ormental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment.  Read more about service animals here.