Our orange tabby cat, Shuki is deeply loved and pampered by all members of our family, including our teenage son with special needs, but despite that outpouring of affection, we certainly don’t schlep him around town with us, demanding that restaurants, shops and airlines allow him access as our son’s “Emotional-Support Animal” (ESAs).
As described in a recent article in the New Yorker magazine, ESAs are animals who are “untrained companions of any species that provides solace to someone with a disability, such as anxiety or depression” and must be prescribed as an emotional support animal by a physician or other medical professional, and the person seeking such an animal must have a verifiable disability. They can be very helpful in alleviating or mitigating some symptoms of mental or psychiatric disability.
It’s vital to note that these ESAs are a completely different category than the service animals most familiar to us, such as seeing-eye dogs for the visually-impaired. Service dogs are trained to perform specific tasks such as pulling a wheelchair and responding to seizures, and they are a deductible medical expense on income tax returns.
Unfortunately, too many other pet lovers who can’t stand to leave Fido at home are taking advantage of the gray areas of the ESA law and getting “certification” from a huge number of Internet providers. Then they purchase fake “service animal” collars, leashes and vests, also over the Internet. Once certified with a letter from these “medical professionals” and armed with the bogus supplies, pet-owners are demanding that businesses allow their animals access, often at the peril of the real service dogs.
Marcie Davis, founder of International Assistance Dog Awareness Week, noted that ordinary pets passed off as service dogs — often with fake badges, vest, or papers bought off the internet — disrupt public places and eat food at restaurants, bring suspicion on genuine service dogs, and even on occasion get into fights with real service dogs like hers.
To show the absurdity of the current unregulated system, New Yorker magazine reporter Patricia Marx, recently obtained ESA letters over the Internet to allow her to gallivant around Manhattan with a turtle, snake, alpaca, turkey and pig. Once the “certificatican” letters were produced, many places allowed the animals to enter, including letting the turtle into the Frick Museum and the pig flew on Jet Blue to Boston, where he dined at the Four Seasons for afternoon tea.
But service animal associations and their allies are fighting back against this growing industry of fake companion animals. The national non-profit, Canine Companions for Independence, is organizing a petition drive, asking the Department of Justice to stop the online sale of fraudulent service dog products. They have a set of goal of 20,000 supporters. It’s time for some oversight and regulation of Emotional Support Animals to ensure that those people with serious disabilities who can truly benefit from man’s best friends are able to do so, and that’s the doggone truth.
