Assistance Animals

An important distinction to understand is that there are two broad groups of assistance animals:

1. Service Animals are defined as dogs (or, in some case, miniature horses*; scroll to bottom of page for more information) that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to do provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals.

2. Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) can be virtually any animal and offer emotional support services to their owners who suffer from a disability. Although these animals provide comfort to their owners, they do not need to be trained to behave in any particular manner.

Laws cover where and when assistance animals are permitted to remain with their owners. Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals are NOT treated the same in every situation. The greatest difference relates to public spaces.

• Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Massachusetts General Law c. 272 § 98A, businesses that serve the public, such as restaurants, hotels, retail stores, taxicabs, theaters, concert halls, and sports facilities, are prohibited from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. Among other things, these laws require businesses to allow people with disabilities to bring their Service Animals onto business premises in whatever areas customers are generally allowed.
• The ADA covers only Service Animals, not Emotional Support Animals. Therefore, Emotional Support Animals are not automatically permitted into public spaces along with their owners.

It depends. The law is very clear that Service Animals are permitted in public spaces along with their owners. Additionally, facilities are not allowed to charge an additional fee of any kind for the Service Animal. In the rare instance a Service Animal is a direct threat to health or safety, the animal can be denied entrance.

Emotional Support Animals are not automatically entitled to these same benefits. Public spaces are not required to allow people and their Emotional Support Animals in together.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s site provides a great resource for those with assistance animals and business owners.

The law is very clear about what business owners may ask if they are unsure an animal is a Service Animal. There are only two questions permitted:

1. Is the Service Animal required because of a disability?
2. What task(s) does the Service Animal perform?

Importantly, businesses may not ask for documentation or certification that the animal is a Service Animal. However, if you have a cat or other non-dog or non-miniature horse, you do not have a Service Animal and therefore are not automatically entitled to enter the business.

Until January 11, 2020, people could bring their assistance animal on an airplane. However, that has been changed per the Department of Transportation (DOT) and assistance animals are no longer allowed. Service animals (as defined by DOT, a service animal is a dog, regardless of breed or type, that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability) are allowed. Read the full DOT rule here. For more information on flying with a service animal, visit the DOT’s website to understand what documentation is needed.

The DOT operates a toll-free hotline to assist air travelers with disabilities. The hotline assists air travelers with time-sensitive disability-related issues that need to be addressed. The hours for the hotline are 7am to 5pm EST, Monday through Friday, except federal holidays. Call the hotline at 1-800-778-4838 (voice) or 1-800-455-9880 (TTY) to obtain assistance.

There is a federal law that covers assistance animals in housing situations. The Department of housing and Urban Development released a Notice in 2013 that discusses how the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the ADA intersect regarding the use of Service or Emotional Support Animals by persons with disabilities.

• According to HUD, “Under the FHA, housing providers have a further obligation [beyond the ADA] to accommodate people with disabilities who, because of their disability, require trained service dogs or other types of assistance animals to perform tasks, provide emotional support, or alleviate the effects of their disabilities.”
• Housing providers must evaluate a request for a reasonable accommodation to possess an Assistance Animal — either a Service Animal or an Emotional Support Animal — in a dwelling. The housing provider must consider: (a) Does the person seeking the request have a disability? And (b) Does the person making the request have a disability-related need for the assistance animal?
  – Where the answers to questions (a) and (b) are “yes,” the FHA requires the housing provider to modify or provide an exception to a “no pets” rule or policy to permit a person with a disability to live with and use an Assistance Animal(s) in all areas of the premises where persons are normally allowed to go, unless doing so would impose an undue financial and administrative burden or would fundamentally alter the nature of the housing provider’s services.
  – Read more about HUD’s definition of a disability for the purpose of housing. Federal laws define a person with a disability as “Any person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; has a record of such impairment; or is regarded as having such an impairment.”
• Housing providers may not deny a reasonable accommodation request because they are uncertain whether or not the person seeking the accommodation has a disability or a disability-related need for an assistance animal.
  – Housing providers may ask individuals who have disabilities that are not readily apparent to submit reliable documentation of a disability and their disability-related need for an Assistance Animal.