What do you think of "emotional support animals"?

Horrible! Slippery slope!
What is next?
Sexual support animals?
I am all for it!

I think it’s a crock.

I’ll be following this thread because I don’t know much about them and want to learn.

If there’s medical evidence that they help people then I consider them the same as anyone else’s medical treatment: not my business.

On the other hand, I don’t know if they’re well-regulated at all, and I would be upset to learn that they’re giving a bad name to other service animals.

Hopefully someone with some knowledge can hop in.

Everyones pet is an emotional support animal but that doesn’t mean you need to take it on airplanes and everywhere with you. Ducks, donkeys, dogs, you name it, they are everywhere. My take, if you’re so fucked up you can’t go to the store or fly somewhere without your emotional support animal then just stay home or get a freaking teddy bear. A real service animal yes, of course, but this whole surge of emotional support animals is just an excuse to take your pet wherever you want regardless IMO.

I’m with @Coloma

Most people look at their pets, and as is usually the case, dogs, as emotional support animals but they don’t take them into movie theaters and airplanes.

If you are so far gone that you can’t leave the house without your dog, you should consider treatment or consider staying home. Because the acceptance of support animals in public places and airplanes is, at the moment, all politically driven and thus occasionally feigned.
What happens if the politics changes?

I think people are looking for loop holes so they can take their pets into the store with them. I don’t really care if there are animals in the store, though. I think it’s kind of cool, as long as they’re under control. Same as kids.

People with mental illnesses should just stay home?

So I suppose people in wheelchairs should just stay home, since it’s such a big hassle to build ramps and elevators everywhere.

jfc.

@Mariah Apples and Oranges. Mental illness and physical disability. Of course people with mental illnesses should not have to stay home, as long as they are not disruptive to others in public and that includes forcing others to be around their pets. I am not bothered, for the most part, but a lot of people would be. Nothing wrong with not wanting to sit next to a Pot Bellied Pig on your flight. LOL

Here is my take: These are not just pets they help people with anxiety and loss issues immensely, especially those who do not respond to traditional treatment. That said, there is quite a bit of abuse where people are claiming they are for support but they really just want to keep their yorkie in their dog purse at work or at a mall. This is destroying the legitimacy of a very important and potentially effective treatment for some.

@ARE_you_kidding_me—That’s exactly my take, too.

My take too. However, I don’t know what the difference is between having a German Shepherd service do vs a Yorkie in the building. What difference does it make?

@Coloma How is it apples and oranges? Mental illnesses are just physical problems that happen to occur in the brain.

People might be on medications that cause them to sweat profusely, and that might be not be pleasant to sit next to on a flight, but we wouldn’t suggest that people who are on medications that have side effects should stay home. Part of living in a society is tolerating other people’s differences.

People already have service animals for physical conditions like blindness, and we don’t consider this so disruptive that we ask them to stay home.

Why does it matter that the animal in this case is treating a mental illness?

If ESAs are poorly regulated such that the animals don’t have to be trained well the way service dogs are, then I would object to that, but I don’t know if that’s the case, and I would certainly focus on improving the issue of the regulation rather than saying that people with these conditions have to be quarantined to their houses.

@Mariah It is the case.

There are also a lot of people that are allergic to pets or afraid of them. A true service animal is one thing but the problem with emotional support animals is that anyone can register a pet as an ESA whether they really are or not and the propensity for abuse is high.
The risk of being bitten or the animal otherwise having behavioral problems is high as well when it is not a trained therapy or service animal. It can also be abusive towards many animals, subjecting them to stress because their neurotic owners insist on taking them everywhere.

Is that true? Anyone can register a pet as an ESA? There’s no prescription or anything needed? I would love to see a source for that, thanks.

Perhaps some people are taking advantage of the situation, but who among us are qualified to make that decision? If it can get some people out of their homes and able to shop or just be among other people, I’m all for it.
I think there are elderly people that are just more comfortable when their pet is with them. Why kick them to the curb?

Well, @Coloma, your issue seems to be with the abuses of the concept. Maybe address the actual concept of emotional support animals?

And really, @Coloma, although you have often made your disdain of “neurotic” people very clear, neuroses do exist, in spite of your intolerance, and if there is a way to ameliorate the effect of those neuroses, would you deny people that?

A little googling reveals that the ADA does not treat them like trained service dogs and you can’t take them to the same places.

@Mariah and @canidmajor My concern is for the animals involved foremost of all and bringing up the potential for abuse in this realm is a valid concern. Abuse of the opportunity for those that may truly need the support and abuse of the animal, forcing it into situations that are stressful for it. Here’s a great article about the propensity for abuse of this system.
@canidmajor Plenty of medications out there for anxiety, and I am not denying anybody anything, I am the first to agree that our pets provide love and support but i also feel that John Q. Public should not have to be forced into sitting next to someones animal that has been registered, on a dishonest whim, as a “service” animal when it is not. I am not a dog lover and don’t want someones panting, hairy beast, breathing in my face on a flight. So fucking shoot me.

If the dog is a true service dog, great, but not just your scruffy mutt that you can’t leave home without. it’s a two way street and the consideration of others is every bit as viable as the mentally challenged persons need to bring their Alpaca into a store. Non- mentally ill people have a right to have their preferences respected too.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/pets-allowed.

Thanks for the additional info. Like I said in my first post I am here to learn, but I also think it’s important to respect the fact that these animals are treatments for real, legitimate conditions.

Clearly they need more regulation, hopefully in time the process will become closer to the service dog industry. I’m guessing ESAs are just relatively new and the regulations haven’t fallen into place yet.

I don’t agree with the “plenty of medications for anxiety” sentiment – for many conditions it is hard if not impossible to find treatments that actually work. If someone is having success with an ESA it would be very cruel to rip that away from them.

Fraud re: service animals: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/fake-service-dogs-growing-problem-8c11366537

When I first got my dog, I was told by an acquaintance that I should register him as an ESA. I told her that he wasn’t, and she said it didn’t matter. That I could just go online and find one of the sites that will “register” him for a small payment. I never looked into it. I was appalled.

I was appalled because I know of stories where ESAs have made dramatic differences in people’s lives. I don’t want to see that immense benefit be lost because some people think it’s a convenient way to get around rules.

Thanks for the info on the ADA thing, AYKM. I guess the acquaintance I talked to didn’t know as much as she pretended to. She definitely made it sound like a legally equivalent sort of license.

Personally, even if someone can get the same benefit from a medication as they can an ESA, I think they should have the right to choose their own treatment. Don’t people usually get a choice when they have multiple options available to them? But like has been said above, it should be through a legitimate, mental-health-professional-approved process, and the dog should be trained for the role.

I don’t know about y’all, but I love seeing dogs in stores, for whatever reason.

@jca exactly, “fake” service animals that ruin it for those with a legitimate need.

@Soubresaut Agree 100%.

This reminds me a little of a conversation I had with a friend when medical marijuana was first legalized here in MA. He was upset because he said a lot of people were going to abuse it and get phony Rx’s just to get high.

My opinion on access to medical treatments is that the same rule should apply as that which we use for criminal justice: prefer that 10 guilty men go free rather than jail 1 innocent man. That is, if some percentage of people are abusing it, but another percentage is getting relief from a medical condition because of it it, it’s more important that we let the “innocents” have their access rather than locking it down to punish the “guilties.”

That’s assuming there’s no way to improve the situation though – and I’m sure there are improvements that could be made.

@Mariah good point.

Anxiety is actually hard to treat outside of drugs like xanex which is highly addictive. If you can get by with a dog and not drugs I’m all for it.

They began appearing among my patients in the early 90’s. They were a godsend for many people. The profile of such a patient was middle aged to geriatric, lives alone, suffers anxiety/depression and all said that the animals helped them cope. Some were taken off anti-anxiety and anti-depression meds or put on lower doses in lieu of the animals positive effect on these individuals. This is always a good thing.

We also had good results with regular animal visits to nursing homes on specific days. The nursing notes recorded fewer incidents of emotional outbursts and certain depressed patients improved on those visit days.

I think dogs are such a splendid idea in nursing homes. I think they’d be great in school, too.

I used to take my big Ragdoll kitty to the nursing home to visit an elderly women I knew. Everyone loved him, he is so mellow and beautiful and touchable. haha

I go shopping with my pet gila monster. I usually tell the store managers she’s with me to help curb my shoplifting impulses.

It works- they usually throw me out of the store before I get a chance to shoplift anything. Sure, it keeps me out of stores but it also keeps me out of jail. ;-p

My son used to get a kick talking a walk aroind town with his 12 ft boa constrictor around his neck.

I remember one of the student clubs would randomly bring puppies to the library at my university to cheer up stressed students. It worked and was awesome.

I think it’s a great idea, but unfortunately there is too much abuse and the proper rules haven’t been put in place. I was told that in California it is illegal to even question someone about an ESA because of privacy laws.

^ I believe you can ask whether the dog is a service dog or not. If they say yes, you walk away. You cannot ask why they have the service dog, or demand that they prove it.

I feel like on one hand, that’s wonderful and on the other, it just means someone can lie and get away with it.

For every good thing there is a scammer.