Emotional support animals and therapy animals
How it works
These get mixed up constantly, and they are close to opposites.
A therapy animal works for other people
A therapy animal visits hospitals, schools, care homes and disaster sites with a handler, providing comfort to people who are not its owner. It is usually assessed and registered by a therapy animal organisation, and that registration is real, unlike an emotional support animal registration, because it certifies temperament and training for that work.
An emotional support animal works for its owner
It lives with the person whose disability it alleviates, and it is not trained. It has housing protection under the Fair Housing Act and nothing else.
The rights, which are the opposite of what people assume
- A therapy animal has no housing accommodation right on account of being a therapy animal, and no public access right. It enters a facility because the facility invited it.
- An emotional support animal has a housing accommodation right and no public access right.
- Neither is a service animal, and neither has ADA public access rights.
Therapy animal registration is the one credential in this area that means something, and it means something for a purpose that has nothing to do with your lease. Presenting it to a landlord as proof of an assistance animal does not work and undermines the rest of the request.
Why the confusion is so persistent
Because the word therapy sounds like it should be the stronger claim. In law it is the weaker one: a therapy animal has no individual rights at all, and its registration exists so a hospital or school can be confident about temperament before letting it in. That registration is genuine, and it is a credential for volunteering rather than a status that travels with the animal.
Animal-assisted therapy is a third thing
An animal working inside a clinical practice as part of treatment is doing animal-assisted therapy. It belongs to the clinician rather than to the patient, and it confers nothing on anybody housing. People occasionally arrive believing that having met a therapy dog in a clinical setting is relevant to their lease. It is not.
Common questions
- My dog is a registered therapy dog. Does that help with my landlord?
- Not by itself. You would still need documentation that you have a disability and that this animal alleviates a symptom of it.