People tamed animals hundreds of years ago. Nowadays, many pet owners consider an animal to be even more than a friend, but a loyal partner and companion. Animals have always helped people to perform different types of work and daily tasks. They are often used for hunting or home security. However, there is one more kind of purposely trained animals - service or assistance animals. They are trained to greatly simplify the life of people with disabilities. The law protects the rights of a service animal. That's why people often use and enjoy all the benefits that service dogs bring to their life.

What is an assistance animal?

A service animal is an animal that was individually trained to perform tasks and meet a disability-related need of a person with a disability. There are several types of assistance animals. The most prevalent types are working, emotional support, and service animals. When people choose a service animal they most often prefer a service dog. It is caused predominantly because there is a widespread opinion that a dog responds to taming and training better than other species of animals. Moreover, all around the world, a dog is thought to be the most loyal and dedicated animal companion. Please note that all types of service animal registration are avaliable online.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a special law that establishes and regulates the rights of people with disabilities, including the rights of service animals. Unlike most experts, doctors, and social workers, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) hasn't confirmed the official status of an emotional support animal as an assistance one. While the federal law allows service animals access to different public services, for example, cafes, restaurants, and means of public transport, ESAs' rights are much fewer.

Fair Housing Act

Fair Housing Act is a federal law issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). First of all, it proclaims an equal opportunity to use housing services for people with disabilities and their animal partners. According to FHA, a person with a disability has the right to demand a reasonable accommodation for oneself and for the assistance animals that help the person with the disability-related needs.

Fair Housing Act as a part of the Americans with Disabilities Act aims to reduce discrimination and violations of personal human rights. Besides providing reasonable accommodations for pets and their handlers and resolving disputes between a landlord and a tenant, the law exempts people from paying pet taxes and fees because service animals aren't pets. They are playing the role of nurses and health professionals for people with disabilities.

How to deal with housing providers?

In such cases, the law is always on the side of tenants. If a person has a doctor's note sustaining the illness and the necessity of an assistance animal, he or she can make a reasonable accommodation request to get a dwelling in a legal way. This must be a sufficient basis for a landlord to allow the accommodations of a person with a disability and his or her service animal.

Even if landlords don't allow pets to live in the dwelling, this prohibition doesn't apply to a service animal. In accordance with ADA and other federal laws, landlords, who don't satisfy the request, could be blamed for discrimination of a person with a disability and obliged by the administrative burden.

Nevertheless, everybody knows that sometimes animal causes damage to the property or poses a direct threat to people. It often happens that landlords' rental may include a deposit, can be used as compensation for possible expenses related to accommodations of a service animal. Also, a landlord may be able to contact the U.S. Department of Housing and the Department of Justice to make a tenant and an assistance animal move out in a legal way.

Features of emotional support animals' rights

The training process of ESAs is slightly different from the training of other service animals. Such a dog is called up to help a person who has a mental or emotional disability. In some countries, mental impairments are still thought to be less important or even insignificant compared to physical disabilities. So, service animals and emotional support animals have non-equal rights. For example, service dogs have access to accompany their handler wherever he or she goes. Whereas handlers of emotional support animals still have to give preference to pet-friendly catering places and pet-friendly airlines.

Referring to the non-recognition of emotional support animal as an assistance animal by ADA, a landlord can reject an accommodation request. If it has happened to you, you have the right to contact a lawyer for legal advice. Considering the fact that an emotional support dog is mental health professional that helps people to overcome a disability, related to mental, emotional, or personality disorder, the law must be on the side of a tenant. However, it's quite a controversial issue, so it is better to be solved by a professional lawyer.