Older and disabled animals
By animal
The animal condition is not part of the test, and providers sometimes behave as though it is.
The test is about you
Whether you have a disability, and whether this animal alleviates a symptom or effect of it. Nothing in that asks about the animal health, age or capability. An elderly cat or a three-legged dog is an assistance animal on exactly the same terms as any other.
Where providers get it wrong
- Treating incontinence in an old animal as automatic grounds. It is a damage and habitability question like any other, assessed on what is actually happening rather than on the animal age.
- Assuming an animal with mobility difficulty is a burden on the building. It usually reduces every objection a provider might otherwise have.
- Asking for veterinary records to assess the animal condition, which is not one of the two things they are entitled to.
The argument that actually cuts the other way
A long-held animal is the strongest version of the second half of the test. Years of documented reliance is considerably more persuasive than a recent acquisition, and a clinician who has seen the relationship over time can say so.
When the animal dies
The accommodation attached to that animal, so a replacement is a fresh request rather than a continuation. Where the disability is unchanged and the provider knows you, it is usually straightforward, and it is worth telling them rather than letting a manager notice a different animal.
Where the animal is lawful, the species is something a clinician records rather than something that decides the outcome. The letter still rests on a licensed clinician concluding that you have a disability and that this animal alleviates a symptom of it.
Common questions
- My dog is old and has accidents. Can they remove it?
- They can pursue actual damage or a genuine habitability problem, as they could with any animal. The age is not the ground.