The Complete Guide to Emotional Support Animal Laws & Psychiatric Service Dog Laws

While an emotional support animal isn’t the same as a service animal, both types of assistance animals have some similar legal protections. This guide covers the relevant laws that protect emotional support animals, assistance dogs, service dogs, and their owners. We’ll also talk about psychiatric service dogs and their legal protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Federal Laws for Emotional Support Animals (ESAs)

Whether they’re dogs, cats, birds, or other animals, emotional support animals are referenced in two federal laws: the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). These two laws relate to an individual’s right to have their emotional support animal with them where they live and when they travel.

The FHA applies to nearly all housing situations and gives emotional support animal owners protection from pet restrictions and fees. The ACAA was changed at the beginning of 2021 to exclude emotional support animals, so it doesn’t have as much power to protect emotional support animal owners as it did in previous years.

The Fair Housing Act

Enacted in 1968, the Fair Housing Act was designed to protect individuals from discrimination when buying or renting a home and engaging in other housing-related activities. This law prohibits landlords and housing providers from discriminating against individuals based on sex, race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, or disability. Some may not know that the Fair Housing Act also protects a person with a disability that may have an emotional support animal or service dog. Landlords must provide emotional support animal owners reasonable accommodation based on emotional support animal laws.

How Does the Fair Housing Act Protect Emotional Support Animal Owners?

The FHA says that housing providers and landlords can’t discriminate against an individual based on their disability. Even if a landlord has a rule against pets on the premises, they must provide reasonable accommodation and allow your service dog or emotional support animal in the home. This protection applies to ESA owners - by definition, an emotional support animal is an animal that provides assistance to a person with a mental or emotional disability. If you have an emotional support animal and supporting documentation (an ESA Letter written and signed by a licensed mental health professional), then you are protected under the FHA.

One of the provisions of the FHA covers assistance animals. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), an assistance animal is “an animal that works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or that provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified effects of a person’s disability.” The HUD also clarifies that “an assistance animal is not a pet.” Because the HUD is one of many federal agencies, this won't change based on emotional support animal laws by state. HUD statements apply to every person in the United States and reach a wider range of people than state or local laws may.

This definition clearly includes emotional support animals and companion animals. This means that the FHA prohibits housing providers from discriminating against individuals with emotional support animals. In practice, this means that a housing provider must “allow a reasonable accommodation involving an assistance animal” in most situations.

What Are the Rights of ESA Owners Under the Fair Housing Act?

There are several rights that service animal and emotional support animal owners have under the Fair Housing Act. This act applies to all emotional support animals except for ones that cause a health or safety hazard for anyone else on the property. Under the Fair Housing Act landlords must offer reasonable accommodation to tenants.

“Reasonable accommodation” gives ESA owners these rights:

• The right to keep their ESA(s) in their home, even if the housing complex prohibits pets
• Exemption from a housing complex’s weight or breed restrictions on pets
• Exemption from pet-related fees, such as additional rent or cleaning deposits

Emotional support animal owners can expect these accommodations in most housing situations, whether they are buying or renting, and a landlord can not refuse housing because someone has a support animal. This applies to anyone with a guide dog, signal dog, psychiatric support dog, or any type of support animal. However, there are some exceptions for certain circumstances, whether a person has a service animal or not.

What Kinds of Housing Situations Are Protected Under the Fair Housing Act?

Most types of housing are covered under the Fair Housing Act. There are only a few exceptions, which are related to the type of housing. According to the HUD, these housing situations are exempt from the FHA:

• Owner-occupied buildings that have no more than four units
• Housing operated by religious organizations and private clubs that limit occupancy to members
• Single-family housing sold or rented by the owner without the use of an agent

The FHA applies to all other housing situations. There are some cases where a landlord or housing provider may be able to make a successful case for denying accommodation to an ESA and refuse housing accommodations for its owner. These exceptions have to do with property damage or threats to safety.

A housing provider may be able to avoid accommodating an emotional support animal if they can show that doing so would impose an “undue financial and administrative burden.” They could also potentially deny an animal that would directly threaten the health and safety of other tenants and/or would result in significant property damage.

For example, a housing provider may be able to successfully argue that accommodating two ESA goats or a miniature horse in a third-floor apartment would cause property damage and/or impose an undue financial burden, regardless of the tenant’s necessity for the emotional support animals. If the HUD agrees, the landlord would be allowed to deny accommodation to the ESA goats.

States With Specific ESA Laws

While the Fair Housing Act is a federal law that applies throughout the U.S., there are some states that have additional laws governing ESAs. These laws do not contradict any statements in the Fair Housing Act but instead add more requirements for ESA owners, and essentially more layers of protection for emotional support animals.

• California: For California residents, effective January 1, 2022, new law AB 468 requires those seeking an ESA letter for dogs to establish a client-provider relationship with the individual for at least 30 days prior to providing documentation, which will result in having two consultations before qualifying. Under state law, ESA owners may bring their animals to work in most situations. Employers with more than five employees must allow ESAs in the workplace. Assistive animals must be trained to act appropriately in the work environment (e.g. potty-trained) and must not threaten the health or safety of anyone in the workplace.
• Florida: In 2020, Florida passed a state law that ensures housing protections for ESA owners. The rights align with those guaranteed by the FHA. However, this law criminalized fraudulent ESA requests, so ESA owners should make sure their ESA Letter meets federal and state legitimacy requirements.
• Texas: The Texas Fair Housing Act is essentially the same as the federal FHA in terms of the rights that it grants to ESA owners. Because a mental illness is not a visible disability, it can be hard to provide reasonable accommodation without proof. In Texas, landlords and housing providers may only ask for proof of an individual’s disability if it is not apparent. For example, a landlord may ask for an ESA Letter if there are no visible symptoms of an individual’s mental disability and/or if it is not apparent that how the ESA assists with those symptoms. An ESA Letter signed by a licensed mental health professional (LMHP) can act as proof in this type of situation.
• New York: A housing provider may require an individual to prove that their ESA is vaccinated in accordance with New York state laws. The New York Human Rights Law gives ESA owners rights matching those laid out in the FHA. However, some emotional support animals may be prohibited in the City of New York based on the New York City Public Health Code. Additionally, landlords cannot charge additional fees for ESAs but may hold the tenant responsible if their ESA causes property damage or excessive wear and tear.

Other states may have ESA-specific laws related to employment or university student housing. As mental and emotional disabilities become more understood and diagnosable, there may be future changes to state laws that give emotional support animal owners more rights to keep their animals with them.

The Air Carrier Access Act

The Air Carrier Access Act prohibits airlines and other air travel providers from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. Air carriers must not discriminate against people with disabilities and must make reasonable accommodations for them.

Originally, this law required airlines to allow individuals with mental or emotional disabilities to keep their emotional support animals with them in the cabin without paying any extra fees. However, the law was amended in early 2021 to exclude emotional support animals.

How Does the Air Carrier Access Act Protect Emotional Support Animal Owners?

As of January 2021, the ACAA does not provide any specific rights to ESA owners. The 2021 change to the original law allowed airlines to recognize emotional support animals as pets (rather than service animals), thus allowing air carriers to exclude emotional support animals from the cabin and to charge additional fees for them to fly (either in the cabin or in the cargo area).

The ACAA does not prohibit air carriers from making accommodations for emotional support animals. There are a few airlines that decided to keep their ESA programs even after the updates to the ACAA excluding emotional support animals.

Individuals who wish to fly with their emotional support animals may be able to find an airline that allows them to fly in the cabin, either free or for a fee. On airlines without such a program, individuals may need to fly their emotional support animals as they would pets: in the cargo hold for whatever additional fee the airline requires. It’s best to check in with specific airlines regarding their rules for emotional support animals. They may ask for information on your emotional support animal and to see your ESA letter. As stated earlier, some airlines will provide reasonable accommodations to allow a person to fly with their emotional support animal.

Are There Any Exceptions to the ACAA?

There aren’t any exceptions to the ACAA that affect ESA owners. However, the law does still require airlines to accommodate individuals with service animals. There are several types of service dogs that help people perform specific tasks to live a more independent life.

The ACAA’s definition of a service animal is “a dog, regardless of breed or type, that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or mental disability.” This definition aligns with that of the Americans with Disabilities Act and includes guide dogs and specially trained psychiatric service dogs.

Psychiatric Service Dogs and the Americans with Disabilities Act

Although sometimes confused with emotional support animals, psychiatric service dogs are different. Psychiatric service dogs are different from guide dogs, hearing dogs, or mobility dogs based on the tasks they are specifically trained to perform. While a guide dog may help someone who is visually impaired and a hearing dog, or signal dog, helps someone who is hearing impaired, a psychiatric service dog helps people perform specific tasks related to a mental or emotional illness. These dogs have special training to perform certain tasks, and they have unique rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

What Is the ADA?

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990. This legislation was designed to protect people with disabilities from discrimination and to guarantee their civil rights. The ADA covers many different topics and situations, including service animals and their legal rights and protections.

Under the ADA, a service animal is defined as a dog that is trained to perform a task that’s directed related to an individual’s disability. There are no size or breed restrictions on service animals – any dog with the right training can be a service animal.

The government doesn’t require service dogs to be certified or registered in a database. Service dogs aren’t required to wear any identifying items, like a vest or ID tags, though they may if their owner desires.

Additionally, the ADA clearly states that emotional support animals are not considered service animals because they do not have special training and “providing emotional support or comfort is not a task related to a person’s disability.” So, an ESA that comforts their owner simply by their presence does not count as a service animal. However, a dog that is trained to recognize and react to their owner’s panic attacks would be considered a service animal.

Guide dogs that help blind people are probably the most well-known service animals. However, there are also psychiatric service dogs (PSD), which are trained to assist individuals with some psychiatric disabilities (e.g. PTSD, depression, generalized anxiety disorder). Here are some examples of tasks that psychiatric service dogs can perform:

• Recognizing an oncoming panic attack and alerting their owner with a specific gesture, such as licking their hand.
• Searching/checking a room for safety to help an individual with PTSD
• Responding to destructive behavior, such as depression-related self-harm, by interrupting the action and/or pressing an alert button.

The exact training a PSD receives depends on the disabled individual’s unique needs. The defining point for a psychiatric service dog is that the tasks they are trained to perform are directly related to an individual’s mental or emotional disability.

What Rights Does the ADA Give Psychiatric Service Dog Owners?

The ADA guarantees many important rights for individuals with disabilities and their service animals. For example, service dogs must be accommodated almost everywhere, even in places that don’t allow pets. A PSD must be allowed to accompany their owner in most areas:

• Public buildings, museums, and government offices
• Restaurants and shops
• Hospitals
• Schools
• Hotels

In most cases, employers must allow their employees to bring his or her service animal to work. The only time a private business or government entity can deny access to a service animal is if their presence “would fundamentally alter the nature of the goods, services, programs, or activities provided to the public.”

For example, a hospital may not prevent a service dog from being in the waiting room, but it could deny access to any area not open to the public, like an operating room. A business or government organization may ask a person to remove their service animal if it is out of control and/or not housebroken. It’s essential that a service animal behaves in a safe manner to avoid causing injury or a health concern to the people around it. State and local governments may require service animals to be vaccinated.

The ADA also gives housing-related rights to psychiatric service dogs. PSDs are allowed in most types of housing, similar to those situations defined in the FHA. However, the ADA also requires that emergency shelters, university housing providers, and public housing programs accommodate service animals, including PSDs.

The ACAA covers travel-related rights for service dogs and their owners. Under the Air Carrier Access Act, airlines must allow service animals, including PSDs, to fly in the cabin for free.

How Do You Qualify for an ESA or PSD?

Now that you understand the legal rights that ESAs and PSDs have, you may be wondering whether your dog, cat, or other animal qualifies as one. In order to qualify for legal protection, your animal must meet certain requirements.

ESA Eligibility Requirements

As stated in the FHA, an emotional support animal counts as an assistance animal. Any type of animal can be an emotional support animal as long as their presence provides comfort and support that helps their owner cope with or reduce symptoms of an emotional or mental disability. Emotional support animals can help with a wide range of conditions:

• Anxiety
• Bipolar disorder
• PTSD
• Agoraphobia
• Postpartum depression

This isn’t an exhaustive list. In order to officially declare your pet an ESA, you must be diagnosed with a mental or emotional disability. Additionally, the diagnosing LMHP must recommend an emotional support animal to treat your condition.

The legal document that proves your animal is an ESA is similar to a medical prescription. It’s an ESA Letter. This document must include the name of your diagnosed condition(s) and a recommendation for an ESA. It must be written and signed by a licensed mental health professional who can legally practice in your state. The letter must include the practitioner’s license number.

PSD Eligibility Requirements

Psychiatric service dogs are considered service animals and therefore, they have more legal rights than emotional support animals. There are emotional support animal laws that protect service dogs and psychiatric service dogs in several places. PSDs have housing rights, and they must be accommodated in most public and private buildings, like restaurants, businesses, and schools. To qualify as a psychiatric service dog, an animal must meet these requirements:

• Be a dog
• Be trained to perform tasks that benefit an individual with a debilitating mental, sensory, intellectual, or psychiatric disability

PSDs can help with a wide range of mental disorders:

• PTSD
• Panic attacks
• Anxiety
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Social phobia
• Depression

The exact tasks that a PSD performs will depend on the needs of the individual. Unlike an ESA, a PSD must have special training. Sometimes psychiatric service dogs are trained to help a person take medications, remind a person to take medications, or apply calming pressure with its paws. These are just a few of the tasks that a psychiatric service dog may be trained to perform for its owner.

A PSD Letter can serve as proof of your dog’s official status as a service animal. The process to get one is similar to getting an ESA Letter. You must be diagnosed with a qualifying condition that would benefit from the assistance a PSD can provide. An LMHP can write and sign a PSD Letter.

Additionally, you must ensure that your dog has the proper training to be a service animal. This goes beyond training your dog to behave well in public and not go to the bathroom inside. Most PSDs go through exposure training to ensure they don’t react improperly or unsafely to various situations like being around other dogs or experiencing loud noises.

A psychiatric service dog must be trained to provide specific help. This could be a task, such as turning on lights before their owner enters a room. The other type of help is called “work.” This could include sensing an oncoming panic attack and performing a specific action to warn of the impending episode.

PSDs don’t have to be trained by a professional, though they can be. Some individuals train their PSDs themselves whereas others hire expert trainers for their dogs.

What Is an Emotional Support Animal?

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an emotional support animal is an animal companion that offers comfort, friendship, and sentimental assistance to those struggling with an emotional or mental disability. Emotional support animals can come from any of the places that pets come from. ESAs can be adopted from shelters, purchased from breeders or pet stores, or obtained from anywhere else that a pet could come from.

Emotional support animals can help those struggling with major life activities and have difficulty falling asleep, are frequently worried, or whose life is severely affected by any mental condition that's diagnosed by a licensed mental health professional. Emotional support animals can provide unconditional love to alleviate symptoms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and many other mental health illnesses.

While dogs are the most common type of emotional support animal, any species of animal can qualify to become a legitimate emotional support animal. As long as the animal is proven to alleviate at least one aspect of a person’s mental and emotional disorders, their cat, horse, bird, or any other animal or pet they feel connected to can turn into their official emotional support animal.

Psychiatric Service Dogs vs Emotional Support Animals

One essential factor to remember about any emotional support animal is that they are very different from psychiatric service animals. Understanding these significant differences is crucial to allow you to properly choose and certify an animal that best satisfies your needs. Below are the major differences between emotional support animals and psychiatric service animals.

Psychiatric Service Dogs Perform More Tasks Than ESAs

Many people believe that emotional support animals and psychiatric service animals are interchangeable, but these two types of animals are trained for separate tasks. A psychiatric service animal is specially trained to perform a function or job for an owner that has a learning or mental disability. An emotional support animal serves as more of an emotional companion for the owner to help with major life activities. A psychiatric service animal may still be able to provide the comfort of an emotional support animal, but it has been trained to complete tasks that a support animal will not, such as getting medication if its owner is having an anxiety attack, or altering others if they sense danger.

Psychiatric Service Dogs Are Protected Under Federal Law

Psychiatric service animals are usually needed more frequently as they help the owner with physical tasks. Therefore, they are offered legal protections through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that an emotional support animal does not get. You can take a psychiatric service animal almost anywhere that you go and they legally cannot be denied access. On the other hand, an emotional support animal doesn’t share the same legal protections. It’s important to understand that if you have an emotional support animal, they may not be allowed into areas that a psychiatric service animal will. Legal protection of an emotional support animal is limited to housing and air travel. However, there may be local laws and businesses that will allow you to bring your emotional support animal to public places, so it’s important to check your state and local government laws.

Psychiatric Service Dog Requirements

Here is a list of the requirements for a PSD:

• The PSD’s owner must be diagnosed with a mental disability in order to be eligble for owning a psychiatric service dog.
• The psychiatric service dog must be trained on certain tasks to assist the owner with their mental disability. The PSD also must behave obediently in public spaces and not react to external stimuli in these situations.
• Psychiatric service dog training can be done by anyone and does not require a professional dog trainer.
• There is no need to certify a PSD. It is recommended that you consult with a licensed mental health professional to certify your need for a PSD. They will give you proof of your certification in the form of a PSD letter.

If you wish to self-train your psychiatric service dog there are resources to assist you. At Pettable we have created an online PSD training course that will prepare you to train your dog. To get started, take our brief online quiz which will pre-screen your needs and determine whether a PSD is right for you.

How An Emotional Support Animal Is Beneficial

Mental health professionals note vast improvements in patients with a mental or emotional disability thanks to the presence of an emotional support animal. Below are the mental health benefits of having an emotional support animal.

They Provide Mental and Emotional Encouragement

Emotional support animals provide comfort to owners with mental health issues, especially to those who have:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Anxiety disorders
• Specific phobias like agoraphobia and aerophobia
• Depression
• Bipolar disorder

During tough times, emotional support animals can help individuals stabilize intense emotions that are the results of the mental illnesses mentioned above. Studies show that animals, especially dogs, help humans produce neurotransmitters that make them happy. Dogs increase the neurochemicals in the brain called dopamine. This is the neurochemical associated with love, bonding, and pleasure. 

When you take care of another living being, such as an animal companion, your capacity to love increases, and you feel less depressed. People suffering from loneliness feel safer and loved when they have an animal around. Having an emotional support animal, especially a dog, also gives you a reason to go out for a walk, maybe a run, or spend time outdoors. These are all good for your mental well-being.

They Give Unconditional Love

Animals can feel love and give love, too. The truth is that animals provide unconditional love. They give love unconditionally to people struggling with mental health decline or an illness like depression or grief. With the unconditional love provided by these animals, a person will feel loved and get back on their feet after a difficult emotional experience.

Feeling loved can dramatically improve a person’s overall mental health. This is important for a person to re-engage with the people around them, form loving relationships, and have more meaningful relationships with their loved ones.

Animal Therapy Works in Conjunction with Other Forms of Treatment

Therapists or counselors are becoming more aware that emotional support animals work in concert with other forms of treatment to overcome mental illness. It’s like advising patients to exercise and eat nutritious food to control the symptoms of a mental health problem or avoid depression.

Assistance animals, including emotional support animals, are used in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Pets are also utilized for mindfulness techniques, to help patients find a sense of purpose, encourage people to spend more time outdoors (by walking their dog), and help individuals feel safe during highly stressful events. Whichever form of therapy works for you, you will find that emotional haven you need when you incorporate an emotional support animal into your treatment plan.

How A Psychiatric Service Dog Is Beneficial

People can train assistance animals, including psychiatric service dogs, to perform specific tasks depending on an individual’s needs. Roles carried out by psychiatric service dogs for anxiety include:

• Detecting signs of an anxiety attack before it happens
• Bringing someone to help the person in distress
• Preventing strangers from approaching a person in distress
• Calming a person down during an anxiety attack through distraction, such as licking their face or providing a paw
• Providing deep pressure therapy to soothe their owner
• Retrieving a phone during an anxiety attack
• Reminding a person to take their medication at certain times of the day
• Performing safety checks of rooms or turning the lights on for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Having a psychiatric service dog can also improve a person’s mental well-being by encouraging them to exercise, spend more time outdoors, provide good company, and relieve stress.

How To Get an ESA or PSD Letter

If you have an emotional or mental disability and think your pet may qualify for an emotional support animal, you need to get an official letter to ensure you get the legal protections you’re entitled to. Psychiatric service dogs do not require a PSD letter, though we recommend you book a consultation with a therapist and receive a PSD letter as proof that you require a psychiatric service dog. If you are in treatment for your condition, your current medical provider may be able to write and sign a letter. However, you don’t have to wait for an appointment to open up with a local provider. You can get an official ESA or PSD Letter online through Pettable.

Pettable is an online service that provides ESA Letters or psychiatric service dog training to qualified individuals. To get a letter, you must be diagnosed with a recognized condition and “prescribed” as ESA or PSD. With Pettable, it’s a step-by-step process:

1. Take the online pre-qualification quiz.
2. If you pass the pre-screening quiz, choose the type of letter you want.
3. Pay the fee for your letter.
4. E-sign the necessary documents and waivers.
5. Schedule a telehealth appointment with an LMHP. Pettable works with mental health professionals all over the country and connects each client to a provider licensed in their state.
6. Complete the evaluation with your assigned provider. You’ll discuss your mental and emotional condition and symptoms so the LMHP can diagnose your condition and determine whether you would benefit from an ESA or PSD.
7. If the LMHP recommends an ESA or PSD, they will write the appropriate letter and provide you with a digital copy, sometimes in as little as 24 hours, with the exception of residents in California where law AB 468 applies, requiring a client-provider relationship of at least 30 days prior to providing documentation resulting in having two consultations before qualifying..

Pettable’s letters are legitimate and comply with state and federal regulations. The company also provides a full satisfaction guarantee. If you don’t pass the evaluation, you get a full refund.

Even if you do qualify for a letter, if the document doesn’t work as intended, you can get 100% of your money back. Additionally, you can get support from Pettable’s expert team members who will talk directly to your landlord to answer any questions or concerns about your letter.

An ESA or PSD can make daily life indescribably better for an individual with a mental or emotional disability. Fortunately, there are federal service animal laws that grant certain rights to these special animals and their owners. The FHA ensures housing protections for emotional support animals, and the ACAA and ADA allow psychiatric service dogs to accompany their owners in most places.

If you have an animal who helps you cope with a mental or emotional condition, getting an official letter ensures you have the proof you need to get these legal protections. Pettable makes it fast and easy for qualified individuals to get the documentation they need. Take the pre-evaluation quiz to get started today.

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