Everything you need to know about service, emotional support, and therapy animals condensed into one video.
Confusion about different types of service animals causes tension in public spaces every day.
People who don’t know the laws surrounding them may be unknowingly putting them at risk.
Business owners or unassuming passersby can become frustrated when they’re unaware that certain kinds of animals are allowed to be in public.
It’s also frustrating to owners of service animals, seeing as they need them to function. Many mental health professionals will describe them as “an extension of the person.”
Here are the most crucial differences between the three types of service animals:
- Genuine service animals help people with disabilities that impair them from living typical lives every day. They make it possible for the person to live and work successfully.
- Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) help people who struggle with mental health issues but can still function in the world on a day-to-day basis.
- Therapy animals either assist mental health professionals in their work OR they’re owned by regular people who train them and bring them to schools, senior centers, etc. to help people feel better.
Service animals are typically dogs, and require extensive training that can take years to be considered legitimate. They’re allowed to go everywhere with their owner.
Laws surrounding service animals in Connecticut can be found here.
ESAs do not require any kind of training and have no true process of certification. The only special privilege allotted to them is the ability to waive pet fees in houses or apartments, they cannot go in most public spaces.
Clarifications about ESAs can be found here.
Therapy animals go through some training, but it’s not as in-depth as service animals. They can be insured and handlers are allowed to bring them where they’re invited.
More information about all three types of service animals can be found here.
If someone isn’t aware that they’re not supposed to bring their ESA in public and they run into a person with a service animal, there can be dangerous complications.
Because service animals have such strict training, they don’t behave like the average animal. ESAs, for the most part, have normal animal behavior.
If a service animal encounters an ESA in public, there’s potential for that service animal to be set back years in their training, which leaves the disabled owner without the piece of them that allows them to function.