Comfort animals, more commonly known as emotional support animals, have been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability by their licensed therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, or other mental health professional. Individuals with physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other qualifying mental health disability may be prescribed a comfort animal.
Tasks that are commonly performed by comfort animals include:
- Assisting the individual with mobility, such as pulling a wheelchair;
- Retrieving dropped items for the individual;
- Alerting the individual to a particular sound;
- Reminding the individual to take their medication; or
- Performing minor physical tasks, such as pushing a walkway or elevator button.
In addition to the above list of tasks, a comfort animal can also provide other therapeutic benefits to their owner, such as relieving symptoms associated with a mental or psychiatric disability.
What Is the Difference Between a Service Animal and a Comfort Animal?
In simple terms, the biggest difference between a service animal and a comfort animal is that service animals assist with physical disability, whereas a comfort animal assists with treating mental or psychiatric disabilities. Further, comfort animals (i.e., emotional support animals) are not considered service animals under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”).
As mentioned above, service animals, most commonly dogs, are trained to perform major life tasks to assist people with physical disabilities. In some cases, small horses are eligible to be service animals. Service animals are also assistance animals, support animals, or help animals.
To legally qualify for a service animal, an individual must have a disability that substantially limits their ability to perform at least one major life task without assistance. Because service animals assist people with physical limitations, the animals must be extensively trained.
In contrast, comfort animals do not often receive any task training. However, some comfort animals are trained to assist individuals with a mental or psychiatric disability with taking their medication by reminding them. However, most commonly, the mere presence of a comfort animal helps mitigate their owner’s mental or psychiatric disability.
What Animals May Qualify as Comfort Animals?
It is important to note that all domesticated animals can qualify as comfort animals. As such, the following are common examples of comfort animals:
- Dogs;
- Cats;
- Rabbits;
- Rats or other rodents such as mice, hamsters, or guinea pigs;
- Birds;
- Snakes or other reptiles, such as iguanas, etc.;
- Ferrets; or
- Horses and other farm animals include cows, donkeys, roosters, chickens, sheep, goats, and pigs.
In addition to any domesticated animal being qualified to be a comfort animal, there is also no age requirement. Further, no laws exclude any particular animal or particular breed of animal from qualifying as a comfort animal.
However, to qualify for a comfort animal, an individual’s mental health professional must state in a letter that the patient is determined to be emotionally or psychologically disabled and that the presence of the comfort animal is necessary for the effective treatment of the disabled person’s mental health.
It is important to note that there are extraordinarily qualified comfort animals that assist individuals with psychiatric disabilities specifically. For example, a psychiatric service dog is a specialized comfort animal trained to perform tasks that assist individuals with psychiatric disabilities to detect the onset of psychiatric episodes and lessen the effects of the episodes.
Examples of common tasks performed by psychiatric service animals may include:
- Reminding their owner to take their psychiatric medicine;
- Providing safety checks or room searches to ease paranoia;
- Turning on lights for individuals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (“PTSD”);
- Interrupting self-harming episodes by persons with dissociative identity disorders; or
- Otherwise, it keeps disoriented individuals from danger.
What Kind of Legal Protections Exist for People with Comfort Animals?
Numerous different acts protect people with comfort animals. For example, the Air Carrier Access Act provides that comfort animals may fly with their disabled owner in an aircraft cabin. Further, the Act provides that the owner cannot be charged an additional pet fee or charge.
However, the owner must have a photo ID identifying the pet as a comfort animal, a certification document from a comfort animal registry company, and a letter from the licensed medical professional who prescribed their pet as a comfort animal.
The Fair Housing Amendments Act is a federal act that requires landlords to accommodate tenants with physical or mental disabilities reasonably.
As long as the requested accommodation made by the individual with the comfort animal does not constitute an undue financial or administrative burden for the landlord or fundamentally alter the nature of the housing program, the landlord must provide reasonable accommodation. Failure to provide a reasonable accommodation would then constitute discrimination.
Under the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”), people with comfort animals qualify for no-pet housing without paying an additional pet fee. This means that even if the rental unit has a policy that does not allow dogs weighing more than a certain weight, and the comfort animal weighs more than the weight limit, the landlord must reasonably accommodate the tenant.
What Conflicts Can Arise With Comfort Animals?
Many conflicts may arise regarding comfort animals. As mentioned above, an individual who possesses a comfort animal may run into an issue with their comfort animal being taken on a flight or allowed in a store. This is especially true if they do not have proper documents to support their use of the comfort animal.
Further, landlords and businesses must only make reasonable accommodations for individuals with comfort animals. This means that if the accommodation made to the individual with a comfort animal interferes with the operation of their business or housing, they may be able to refuse the accommodation.
For example, suppose there are existing tenants that have pet allergies. In that case, a landlord can choose not to accommodate the individual with a comfort animal if it interferes with another lawful resident.
This is because the landlord can not discriminate against a tenant with allergies just to accommodate the person with the comfort animal. Such conduct by a landlord would go beyond providing a “reasonable accommodation,” as it would require the landlord to break an existing lease with an existing tenant to accommodate the tenant with a comfort animal.
Do I Need a Lawyer for Help With Comfort Animals?
As can be seen, the laws regarding comfort animals are very nuanced and often require a thorough understanding of local laws that concern comfort animals. One must also be aware of all the federal protections afforded to individuals with comfort animals.
As such, if you are involved in a conflict or legal dispute involving a comfort animal, it is in your best interests to immediately consult an experienced landlord tenant lawyer specializing in landlord/tenant law.
Further, if you are having issues with the presence of a comfort animal in the workplace, it is in your best interests to consult with an experienced employment lawyer. In any situation, an attorney can help you understand state and federal laws surrounding comfort animals. Finally, they can also represent you in court if court intervention is necessary.
