Frequently Asked Questions about emotional support animals (ESA’s)
Frequently Asked Questions about Emotional Support Animals and approved ADA Service Animals
Many people with disabilities use a service animal in order to fully participate in everyday life. Dogs can be trained to perform many important tasks to assist people with disabilities, such as providing stability for a person who has difficulty walking, picking up items for a person who uses a wheelchair, preventing a child with autism from wandering away, or alerting a person who has hearing loss when someone is approaching from behind.
The Department of Justice continues to receive many questions about how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to service animals. The ADA requires State
and local government agencies, businesses, and non-profit organizations (covered entities) that provide goods or services to the public to make "reasonable modifications" in their policies, practices, or procedures when necessary to accommodate people with disabilities. The service animal rules fall under this general principle. Accordingly, entities that have a "no pets" policy generally must modify the policy to allow service animals into their facilities.
DEFINITION OF A SERVICE ANIMAL AND AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL (ESA)
Question #1: What is a service animal?
Under the ADA, a service animal is defined as a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person's disability.
Question #2: What does "do work or perform tasks" mean?
The dog must be trained to take a specific action when needed to assist the person with a disability. For example, a person with diabetes may have a dog that is trained to alert him when his blood sugar reaches high or low levels. A person with depression may have a dog that is trained to remind her to take her medication. Or, a person who has epilepsy may have a dog that is trained to detect the onset of a seizure and then help the person remain safe during the seizure.
Question #3: Are emotional support, therapy, comfort, or companion animals considered service animals under the ADA?
No. These terms are used to describe animals that provide comfort just by being with a person. Because they have not been trained to perform a specific job or task, they do not qualify as service animals under the ADA. However, some State or local governments have laws that allow people to take emotional support animals into public places. You may check with your State and local government agencies to find out about these specific laws.
Question #4: If someone's dog calms them when having an anxiety attack, does this qualify it as a service animal?
It depends. The ADA makes a distinction between psychiatric service animals and emotional support animals. If the dog has been trained to sense that an anxiety attack is about to happen and take a specific action to help avoid the attack or lessen its impact, that would qualify as a service animal. However, if the dog's mere presence provides comfort, that would not be considered a service animal under the ADA.
The key to understanding if you have an ADA Service Dog or an Emotional Support Animal (ESA):
(A) The animal in question must be a dog. As of March 15, 2011, only dogs are recognized as service animals under titles II and III of the ADA. A service animal is a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability
(B) There must be a medical diagnosis for a disability which requires the support of a service animal from a licensed doctor.
(C) The dog must be professionally trained, traditionally by an ADA licensed training facility, to take a specific action when needed to assist the person with a disability. Animals trained in these professional facilities will always have documentation on the training.
What Counts as a Service Animal in Georgia?
Under Georgia law, those who are blind or have a visual disability, are deaf, or have another physical disability may bring a guide dog or service dog into public accommodations. The dog must have been trained specially to provide assistance by a school for seeing-eye, hearing, service, or guide dogs. The law defines a physical disability as a physiological deficiency or defect that renders the person unable to move around without aid, or limits the ability to walk, climb, ascend, sit, rise, or perform related functions. Note that this definition doesn't include mental, developmental, or intellectual disabilities. Therefore, psychiatric service animals are likely not covered by the law, unless they assist someone who also has a disability that creates the mobility or sensory restrictions discussed above.
The ADA defines a service animal as a dog that is individually trained to perform tasks or do work for the benefit of a person with a physical or mental disability. (In some cases, a miniature horse may also qualify as a service animal under the ADA.) The tasks or work the animal does must be directly related to the person's disability.
Neither law covers ordinary pets or what some call "emotional support animals": animals that provide a sense of safety, companionship, and comfort to those with psychiatric or emotional disabilities or conditions. Although these animals often have therapeutic benefits, they are not individually trained to perform specific tasks for their handlers. Under the ADA and Georgia law, owners of public accommodations are not required to allow emotional support animals, only service animals.
