The Rise in Emotional Support Animals
Emotional Support Animals (ESA) are becoming more common, but not all dogs are service animals.
Emotional Support Animals are on the Rise
Michael Winand unclenches his fist, clears his throat, and takes a deep breath before he sits down on the couch. His dog Dillion jumps on the couch with a ball in his mouth.
“I literally bring him anywhere I can, and if he can’t come, I won’t go,” says Winand as his emotional support dog Dillion climbs on top of his lap. Winand immediately laughs, smiles, uncrosses his legs, and takes his last sip of ice water before the camera starts rolling.
Winand has struggled with anxiety and depression his entire life, and in 2015 he decided that he needed a new form of support. He got a French Bulldog mix and named him Dillion. Winand began to notice how much Dillion was helping him and how much better he was feeling, so he decided to register Dillion as an ESA.
“In general when I’m around him, I just have less anxiety,” says Winand.
After six years, Winand can’t imagine his life without him.
“My friends and family are like “okay enough bringing the dog everywhere we go”, says Winand.
According to American Humane, emotional support animals (ESA) are “companion animals who help their owners cope with the challenges associated with emotional and mental health conditions.”
In 2019, there were nearly 200,000 ESA’s in America.
ESA’s are becoming widely accepted more and more every day. Whether it’s grocery stores, college campuses, or airplanes, people are bringing their ESA’s with them everywhere. There are no more batting eyes, turning heads, or whispers such as “Why does she have her dog in here?”; they are now a part of mainstream culture.
The Assistant Director of the Disability Resource Center at Montclair State University (MSU), Marie Tizon, says ESA’s are allowed on campus for students who need them and submit a request.
“We partner with residence life to see how we can be able to support the student and the animal,” says Tizon.
MSU allows students who submit a request and provide evidence from a mental health professional to have an ESA because they want to accommodate their students as best as possible.
“We try to see where the student is at, and how we can support them through this because right now it’s a really difficult time,” says Tizon.
Tizon explains that there are distinct differences between service animals and ESA’s.
“There are vast differences between the two, and the services they provide, and the laws that are covered that protect individuals that have a service animal vs. an ESA.”
Linda Fuoco, who has been writing about pets for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since 1995, says that some people pretend their pets are ESA’s without actually registering them, just so they can bring them everywhere. She says that this can be damaging for the reputation of registered ESA’s.
“On airplanes, they’ve had so-called emotional support dogs getting into fights with service dogs and peeing and pooping on the plane,” says Fuoco. “A highly trained service dog would never do any of that.”
Fuoco says that this takes away from the real emotional support animals and affects access for others who actually need ESA’s.
“Vested animals have reportedly attacked people and urinated and defecated on airplanes,” says Fuoco in her article. “As a result of this bad behavior, organizations that train real service dogs say their animals are increasingly being denied access to restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels and other public places.”
“When a restaurant or a shop or the airlines have more than one bad experience with a so-called emotional support dog, they’re leary of all dogs,” says Fuoco. “Some veterans have physical disabilities…but a lot of them have brain injuries and look “normal”, and they’re the ones getting challenged about why they have the dogs.”
