A rocky legal system is letting emotional support animals off their leashes

Their pitter-patter footsteps fill hallways as they head to class and work, tails wagging with heads stuck out in the wind as they are driven around. More than just pets, emotional support animals are constantly on the job, deluging their owners with unconditional love.

Emotional support animals (ESAs) provide their owners with the help they need to healthily function in day-to-day life. Unlike service animals, which are trained to assist people with specific tasks and are registered in national databases, ESAs do their jobs just by being around.

“I have really bad depression and anxiety issues, and I was on medications before I talked to my psychiatrist and he recommended getting an ESA,” Luna Brewer, whose corgi mix accompanies her to her journalism classes and is undergoing psychiatry service animal training, said. “She does really well whenever I have panic attacks to try and ground me. She’ll force me to pet her, and having that touch-connection helps me realize, like, ‘I’m not going to die.’”

A young assistance dog sleeps during its training. Unlike ESAs, service animals must undergo training.

The American with Disabilities Act requires service animals to be allowed practically wherever their two-legged counterparts go.

There is no official registry of emotional support animals, and no way to officially keep track of how many there are in the U.S. However, United Airlines reported that 76,000 ESAs were declared before flights in 2017, up from 43,000 in 2016. Delta reported an 86 percent increase in ESAs since 2016.

Since the ADA recognizes ESAs as assistance animals, they get the same legal benefits as service animals without needing to be trained. ESAs only need a letter from a mental health professional to be brought on a plane or to class.

Such a letter can be purchased online for $130, with an option to rush it for $100 more. After just one appointment over the phone, a mental health professional can decide whether to sign off on designating an animal as an ESA. People can also purchase a reasonable accommodation form on the same website, which guarantees ESAs a spot in any housing facility regardless of its pet policy.

Pricing for a single consultation with a mental health professional and the requested letter usually range between $100 to $200.

“When the standards around what constitutes accommodations become very loose, it starts to undermine the credibility of the accommodations people really need,” Dr. Paul McAnear, director of the UT Student Counseling Center, said. “They’re bypassing the standards we put in place, and that’s just not fair.”

The system for ESAs lack the infrastructure support animals have, which have led to concerns about people exploiting it to bring their personal pets with them practically anywhere, regardless of any restrictions. While service animals must be trained and can only be dogs or miniature horses due to their unique capacity to learn, any animal can be an ESA.

Recently, a woman was not allowed onto a flight after she tried to board with her emotional support peacock.

“A lot of people use fake ID cards they found online to bring their dogs everywhere, knowing businesses can’t do anything about it,” Brewer said. “That’s really terrible, to cheat the system, especially a system set up for people who really need support from their animals.”

ESAs can be trained to become psychiatric support animals, which are recognized and registered as service animals and help their owners control panic attacks or dissociative episodes.

At the University of Tennessee, students can apply for ESAs with the Office of Disability Services. David Ndiyae, assistant director, said his office investigates applicants’ histories with their doctors to curtail students purchasing letters online. If the application is approved, students can keep their ESA in residence halls to assist them with the stress of college life.

Through several interviews, the office also investigates the extent of a student’s illness to determine if an ESA would be appropriate.

Chelsea, a service dog to a veteran, gets her ear rubbed while watching the Department of Defense Warrior Games. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense.

“If you’ve got a pet in a residence hall up and they got to go pee in the middle of the night, you’re waking up and walking them,” McAnear said. “It is a big responsibility to have a pet and, like a lot things, sometimes that’s not thought through.”

Despite the services they provide, ESAs are still pets. While their leashes may be too long, they are also still the best at what pets do: giving unconditional love.

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Story written for a feature writing class. I just wanted to publish it somewhere.