[00:00:05] Speaker A: Previously on Public Facing the Podcast. Here's one of the most misunderstood parts of the ada. Many people believe a business can't ask any questions. That's not quite true. If it isn't obvious that the dog is a service animal, employees may ask only two questions. First, is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? Second, what work or task has the dog been trained to perform? That's it. Employees may not ask someone to identify their disability. They may not request medical records. They may not require certification papers. They may not insist on seeing an identification card. The ADA protects access. It does not excuse disruptive behavior. And there's another point that's often underlooked. If a service animal must be removed because of its behavior, the business should still offer the individual the opportunity to receive goods or services without the animal when reasonably possible. So the focus remains on serving the person who while maintaining a safe environment. In today's episode on service animals versus Emotional support animals and Law, I'd like to think that today's episode is surrounded around how we got here, the fraud, policy changes, and the rise of psychiatric service dogs. So if you've ever wondered why this issue has become so controversial, the answer it isn't just the law. It's what happened over the course of the last 15 years. See, at one point, emotional support animals were barely part of the national conversation. Today, they're discussed almost everywhere on social media. At airports, in apartment complexes, at restaurants, even in courtrooms. So what changed? Well, the short answer is just this, that the growing popularity of emotional support animals was accompanied by a rapid expansion of online certification services, if we can call them that, an inconsistent public understanding of disability law and an increase in people misrepresenting ordinary pets as assistance animals. Now, that combination, well, it led federal agencies and transportation providers, landlords and businesses to re examine how assistance animals and how their laws were being applied. And that's where we start today's story. And we'll begin just there. Cue the music. [00:04:06] Speaker B: From the natural state. This is public facing the podcast with joe holman. [00:04:20] Speaker A: Thanks for joining in today at Public Facing the Podcast, I'm Joe Holman. Let's start with when the Internet entered the picture in all of this because several years ago, a new online industry exploded. Almost overnight, websites began advertising, quote, unquote, official ESA registrations. Now, some promised instant approval in minutes. Others sold certificates, identification cards, embossed badges, patches, and professionally printed paperwork designed to make an animal appear officially recognized. The marketing was pretty persuasive to many people. They genuinely believe these Purchases created legal rights. Others knowingly used them to bypass pet fees or gain access to places where pets weren't normally allowed. The problem became that none of those websites were part of the federal government. There's never been a federally recognized registration system for service animals. Likewise, no federal law requires a service animal to wear a vest or to carry identification or even appear in a national database. For example, support animals, the situation. Well, for emotional support animals, the situation wasn't much better. Many websites, they blurred the distinction between a legitimate clinical evaluation by a licensed mental health professional and a quick online questionnaire that generated paperwork with little or no meaningful assessment. Now, that flood of questionable documentation, it created confusion for everyone. Landlords, businesses, airlines, transportation as a whole, and perhaps most unfairly, to the people with legitimate disabilities who depended on genuine assistance animals. Now, there was. This is where the backlash comes in. Because as reports of abuse increase, public skepticism grew. Now, many listeners have probably seen viral videos of things like peacocks and pigs and monkeys or other unusual animals making headlines after being described as emotional support animals. Now, those stories were pretty unusual, but they received enormous media attention. So whether isolated or not, they shaped public perception. That's right, Businesses became more cautious. Landlords scrutinized accommodation requests more carefully. Transportation providers, well, they had to revisit their policies. And unfortunately, the backlash didn't always distinguish between fraudulent claims and legitimate disability accommodations. Now, people who truly relied on assistance animals sometimes found themselves questioned more often, challenged more frequently, or viewed with unnecessary suspicion. In other words, fraud. It didn't just undermine the rules, it made life harder for the people those rules were originally designed to protect. [00:09:14] Speaker B: So [00:09:17] Speaker A: I can tell you, over the course of the last couple episodes that we've done, I am sorry to say that I had an oversight that I had seemed to just look over the situation. I feel it important and my duty to give you the facts, but to back those facts up with the sources and resources that most impact those areas. Now, when, when I started this series, we were discussing the Americans with Disabilities act. And although I discussed it and I quoted from it, I neglected to point you to where that act actually resides. It is a government. The site and document we can go to ADA.gov that's the US Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Division, and it's the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA Protecting People with Disabilities from Discrimination. So I invite you to check that out [email protected] that's ADA.gov now. Also, while I've got you here, I want to just share that, you know, under the Americans with Disabilities Act. A service animal is defined specifically as a dog that is individually trained to perform work or tasks directly related to a person's disability. Now, this definition excludes emotional support animals, therapy dogs and comfort animals as their primary function is providing comfort rather than performing specific disability related tasks. So while the ADA recognizes dogs as service animals, there is one caveat, and that is that miniature horses may also be permitted as a reasonable modification in certain public accommodations in if they're trained to perform tasks and meet specific assessment criteria. And again, service animals are not required to be certified, licensed or wear identifying vests. Now, businesses and public entities are generally speaking limited to asking the two questions that I shared previously, which was to verify a service animal, asking only one, if the dog is a service animal and it's required because of a disability, and two, what work or task has the dog been trained to perform? You see, they can't require documentation [00:12:42] Speaker B: or [00:12:42] Speaker A: demand to see the animals. Training your service animal is not some type of carnival sideshow where they have to perform at the drop of a hat. It's not like that. It also they're not allowed to demand that that animal perform as this training and they can't ask about the nature or extent of the person's disability. So service animals are just that. They're allowed to accompany their handlers in all areas where the public is permitted, including restaurants, stores and government buildings. They can only be excluded if the animal is out of control, such as biting or growling or running loose, the handler does not take effective action, or if the animal is not housebroken. See airlines, they operate under different regulations as well. The Air Carrier Access act through the Department of Transportation, which may require specific DOT forms regarding the animal's health, training and sanitation needs for flights. So that's the quick breakdown. That's the quick answer, believe it or not. Now also, for those that are unaware of what it takes to train a service animal, service animal training can cost all over the place, on a different range, between 10 and $50,000 for professionally trained dogs through nonprofit organizations such as Canine Companions and Guardian Angels Medical service dogs, as they provide highly trained service dogs completely free of charge to eligible individuals. But it's that training, that training of 10 to $50,000 that typically takes six to 18 months and involves basic obedience and socialization and specialized task training for disabilities such as mobility issues, PTSD and medical alerts. Now those are for the service animals. So let's talk now just a bit about an emotional support animal because they're animals that provide therapeutic benefit such as Comfort or companionship to a person with a mental health or psychiatric disability. And unlike service animals, well, those service animals that are trained to perform specific tasks to mitigate a disability, well, emotional support animals do not require special training or certification. Their presence alone is what alleviates symptoms of conditions like anxiety, depression, or ptsd. And you'll find that there are areas where legal protections and rights come in. Now, under the Fair Housing Act, ESAs are considered reasonable accommodations, allowing them to live in housing with no pet policies and exempting owners from pet fees or deposits. But what about public access? Well, ESAs, they do not have public public access rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. They're not allowed in restaurants or stores or other public areas where pets are prohibited. And as of January 2021, air travel is an issue because airlines are not required to accommodate emotional support animals ads service animals because they're not and that they may treat them just as pets, requiring standard pet fees and restrictions. So that's what I wanted to touch base with initially. Now, again, what happened after? And why did airlines change the rules? Well, perhaps no policy shift was more visible really than the one involving commercial airlines. See, for many years, emotional support animals often traveled in aircraft cabins under federal regulations that differed from the ADA. But then, in late 2020, the US Department of Transportation revised its rules. Today, airlines are required to recognize trained service dogs, but again, they are not required to treat emotional support animals as service animals. Now, most major airlines now classify ESAs under the standard pet policies. That means that they may charge pet fees, they may apply carrier requirements, they may impose size limitations or decline transportation altogether if the animal doesn't meet their pet policies. So for travelers, that represented a significant change. And for airlines, well, it simplified their enforcement. So for many disability advocates, though, it highlighted the importance of distinguishing between trained service animals and animals that provide emotional comfort through companionship alone. Now, I want to talk about the rise of psychiatric service dogs. Around the same time that the airline policies were changing, another trend was gaining momentum. See, more individuals began exploring psychiatric service dogs, often called PSDs. At first glance, some people assume a psychiatric service dog is simply another name for an emotional support animal. My friend, my favorite listener. It is not. It is not. A psychiatric service dog is a true dog service animal under the ADA when it is individually trained to perform specific tasks directly related to a person's psychiatric disability. Those tasks might include, but are not necessarily limited to, interrupting a panic attack before they escalate or providing deep pressure therapy when trained to do so, guiding someone that's experiencing disassociation to a safe location, interrupting compulsive or self harming behaviors, retrieving medication or waking someone experiencing severe night terrors. Notice the common thread here. See Every one of those examples involves trained work, not companionship alone training and that distinction places psychiatric service dogs under the same ADA or protections as guide dogs, hearing dogs, mobility assistance dogs, seizure alert dogs, and other task trained service animals. So as awareness has grown, well, many individuals who might once have relied solely on an emotional support animal have chosen instead to pursue the extensive training required for a psychiatric service dog. Now, the process takes time, consistency and commitment, but for some individuals it also provides broader public access protections under federal law. Now, let's touch on housing for a moment here because housing It's a changing landscape out there. Housing remains one of the most discussed and most misunderstood areas of assistance animal law. For years, hud, the Housing and Urban Development their HUD guidance. It explained that assistance animals under the Fair Housing act could include both task trained service animals and animals providing emotional support that alleviated one or more symptoms of a disability. More recently, HUD has withdrawn some earlier guidance and signaled a shift in how it approaches assistance animal issues while also considering additional rulemaking. So it's important to understand what that means. Congress has not rewritten the Fair Housing act, just to be clear. Instead, the the conversation today, well, it centers on how HUD interprets and enforces the law, how housing providers evaluate requests for reasonable accommodations, and how courts may address future disputes. In practice, many housing providers are paying closer attention to documentation than they did in years past. That doesn't mean every request is being denied. What it means is that requests are more likely to be evaluated carefully to determine whether the accommodation meets the legal standards. This is again an evolving area of law, and anyone that's facing a housing dispute, they should rely on current legal guidance rather than outdated Internet articles or social media advice. Come on. Not everything out there on the Internet is true or is 100% true. So we have to watch what our sources are. Now, I've explained a bit on the ada, but let's talk for just a moment on the situation with service animals. We've discussed what training might cost. We've touched on that a bit. What about those that are out there searching, seeking a legitimate ESA letter? See, that naturally leads to another question from where we were. Because if someone genuinely believes that they would benefit from an emotional support animal, well, where should they begin? The answer is surprisingly simple. Start with your health care provider. That's right. Now that may be a licensed psychologist, psychiatrist, a licensed clinical social worker, even a licensed professional counselor. Or it could be another mental health professional who is authorized under state law to evaluate and treat mental health conditions. The process, it should begin with an actual clinical relationship, not a promise of quote, unquote instant approval. Right now a legitimate evaluation will consider whether the individual has a disability that's recognized under applicable law, whether the animal alleviates symptoms associated with that disability, and whether an assistance animal recommendation is clinically appropriate. So be cautious of the websites that promise guaranteed approval, instant certification or federal registration. Remember again, there is no federal registry, there is no. Immediate certification and I don't really want to to get your your hopes up that you're you're in the the clear when it comes to a really nice looking identification card or certificate from these websites. It's simply not the same thing. So those claims, they're often sound official, but they may create more confusion than protection and they've still got your money. Now, a genuine accommodation begins with a genuine clinical assessment. Okay? So by now one thing should be clear. Not just pretty clear, not just a little clear, but crystal clear that this isn't simply a conversation about dogs or paperwork or even housing. It's a conversation about balancing disability rights and public trust along with business responsibilities and evolving federal policy. So we'll do a fact check. Under the Americans with Disabilities act, there is no federally required registration, certification or identification card for service animals. A dog's legal status depends on its training to perform disability related work, not on paperwork purchased online. Now, it should be said commercial airlines are no longer required to recognize emotional support animals as service animals. And while the United States has developed its own legal framework, well, it's not the only country that wrestles with these questions. In our next episode, final episode of the series, we're going to step beyond America's borders to compare how other nations handle service animals and emotional support animals. We'll look at examining where the United States is more permissive or more restrictive. And we're going to finish with a practical guidance for business owners, for landlords and individuals trying to navigate these often confusing rules. Folks, I've enjoyed our time together. It has been extremely valuable. I feel I look forward to coming together again on our next episode. Again, it'll be the finale to the series. So until next time, folks, I hope that you've gotten some good information out of this. I encourage you to do the research for yourself as well. I did share the information or some information on service dogs. I did not share information on emotional support animals. I know that there are several resources out there and if I had to, you know, pick one off the top of my head or a few, it would be us serviceanimals.org I do not endorse them. I simply share them as a resource, not the totality in resources for an emotional support animal. Now that said too, if you were looking into service animals, there are some sites out there too that claim that they are for service dogs. You could find them at USA Service Dog Registration. That's US Service Dog Registration.com again, not a I'm not endorsing them. I am simply sharing that these are some of the resources. I encourage you to follow up with both clinical assessments with your your provider or also with looking into the legal ramifications of that of a service animal and a emotional support animal. So thanks for tuning in today. I look forward to our next visit. Until next time, be safe, be kind. We'll see you then. [00:34:14] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to Public Facing, the podcast with Joe Holman. Visit us online at publicfacingpod.stream and on [email protected] public facing podcast.