eritated:

the-dook-knight:

eritated:

Does anyone know about therapy animal laws in the US? Specifically ones that allow public access. I feel I would benefit from a therapy animal due to anxiety, but not a dog (so not a service dog), preferrably a pigeon, and I’m having an issue finding info that doesn’t pertain to dogs.

My cockatiels are my ESAs, but I think I’d benefit more from an actual therapy pigeon, which can be taken in public because I don’t currently feel comfortable doing things by myself due to anxiety, which is definitely hindering me and increasing my depression.

@ramseyringnecks @tinysaurus-rex

Alrighty so Therapy Animals (which must pass specific training and be certified) are not trained for their owner/handler specifically, but rather to bring comfort to other people, such as in nursing homes, schools, day cares, therapy offices, etc. There are only very specific places they are allowed (besides your usual public pet places such as parks and the like), and you must first be invited/asked/gain permission to bring your animal to that location.

Then there are ESAs, which unfortunately are the closest you can get to a non-dog service animal…of course only dogs (and in some cases miniature horses and monkeys(???)) can be legally recognized as a service animal.

Basically if you are disabled and cannot have/handle/want a dog…then you’re kind of screwed (like me! and a bunch of other people!).

The only “workaround” would be specifically asking the owner/manager of where-ever you are going if they would tolerate/allow your emotional support animal going with you. Some people are totally cool about it, but most big chain stores are not. With this it is tricky because you have to make sure they understand the legal difference between an ESA and a service animal because we don’t want to screw service-animal-handlers over by messing it up. I had great luck in the Tampa Bay area in Florida, folks were generally pretty chill with all sorts of animals coming into stores, haha. I cannot speak for other areas aside from parts of Florida and Upstate NY (where it is a big no-go in a lot of places).

I am super bitter about the topic. When they passed the law chance in 2011 they went from “WAY TOO LENIENT” to “EXCLUDE A LOT OF DISABLED FOLKS BECAUSE THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND.” 

Monkeys??? WTF.

Thank you for the info about therapy animals! I couldn’t find shit about them because everything I googled either gave me service dogs or ESAs 😦

I did some digging into Pennsylvania’s laws specifically and found this:

“Is the same definition of “service animal” used under Pennsylvania law as under the ADA?

No. The PHRA does not use the term “service animal,” but, “guide or support animal.”
There is no further definition of what this means. On the surface, it does not appear to be limited to dogs or miniature horses and could, conceivably, include other types of animals.“

There was an email at the bottom of the PDF, so I emailed them to ask about it. It’s from 2010 though, so if everything was changed in 2011…. ugh. Hopefully it’s still an email in use and I get a response.

It’s really fucking shitty that only dogs are allowed because they’re so high energy and high maintenance like… how do they expect a lot of us disabled people to be able to care for them

Unfortunately, people who hear “pigeon” are going to think “ew, gross, germs”, no matter how incorrect that is. I think you’d have a hard time getting most places to let you bring a pigeon in.