Mental health is becoming a rising concern day by day for everyone. With the increase of mental health concerns like stress, anxiety, and other disorders, there is a huge demand for pets, as they are proving to be a good alternative to medicines for the same. According to a survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association (APPA), over 90.5 million U.S families (70% population) own a pet in their house.
As per the doctor, an individual connected to an animal experiences a boost in serotonin and dopamine (primarily responsible for happiness, focus, and motivation). These neurotransmitters help relieve the signs of medical conditions like depression, anxiety, and stress, etc.
After seeing these stats, no wonder wherever you go outside why it is so common to spot pets now and then. Now, what’s more common than this is that most of these pet parents refer to their pet as an “emotional support animal.” Seems like a fancy term, right?
Well, after you get to know about the purpose that these pets serve, you won’t doubt why these animals are referred to with such a unique term. Let us tell you an intriguing thing here! Did you know that every emotional support animal is a pet, but not every pet is an emotional support animal?
So, what are actually these emotional support animals? How are these different from normal pets?
Basically, an animal that assists psychiatrically disabled individuals and aids their disability with their support and companionship is called an emotional support animal or ESA. Hence, these animals serve a bigger purpose than a regular pet; that’s what makes them different from a standard pet.
After going through the above, it is normal to have typical doubts like “When did this emotional support animal thing start?” or “What was the need to differentiate emotional support animals from normal pets?”
Talking about when did this emotional support animal thing start? Well, it’s not something fresh! Humans have been taking emotional assistance from pets long before they realize what it actually means. We are dependent on animals for the love and care that they serve us. It’s a more kind of mutual relationship where the exchange is solely love, and both groups get benefitted. Here we will talk about psychiatrically disabled individuals; their dependency on their pet multiplies to another level. So, one can imagine the importance of emotional support animals for a disabled person.
For that very reason, Titles VIII and IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 referred to the Fair Housing Act amended in 1988. It prohibited discrimination in housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, sex (including gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexual harassment), and disability (after amendment).
Here, as you can see, it is illegal to discriminate against a person based on disability while getting a loan, renting or purchasing a property, looking for housing assistance, etc.
Over here, disability was defined as a physical or mental illness that limits a person from performing normal life activities.
Further discrimination can be seen, such as a landlord’s refusal to make reasonable accommodation for a disabled tenant. Here, the accommodation request must be something reasonable and necessary for the disabled person. If approved, it could offer them an equal chance to benefit from the dwelling unit, just like other tenants.
A reasonable accommodation request can be anything, for example, for an “animal.” These animals were regarded as assistance animals, further termed emotional support animals and service animals. The main difference between the both is that the service animals are trained to assist disabled individuals and emotional support animals don’t require any special training.
The foremost reason for differentiating emotional support animals from normal pets was to provide equal opportunities to emotional support animal owners. The government wanted to make sure that a person’s disability should never limit them to enjoy equal opportunities as other citizens of the United States. When the US citizens got to know that the government understood their need for their pets and made laws to protect them and guard them against any discrimination, the psychiatrically disabled individuals went on to certify their pets as emotional support animals. At this point, the government required some unique identity proof to distinguish emotional support animals from normal pets and ensure that only emotional support animals could benefit from these special laws.
Here comes the emotional support animal letter into the picture. An official document written and signed by a state-licensed health professional on official letterhead is known as an emotional support animal letter.
The famous ESA letter service provider Fast ESA Letter spotted a remarkable rise in people looking for ESA letters after the pandemic hit. The pandemic made things worse for everyone. Due to a sudden halt in their social lives, most people suffer mentally or emotionally these days. Now, instead of relying on medicines, taking emotional help from pets seems a safer choice. For that very reason, more and more people choose animal assistance and owning pets these days. Further certifying these pets with companion dog certification are serving countless benefits like;
- Access to stay with your pet even in the rental apartments that follow the no-pet policy.
- There is no need to pay extra rental or security charges to stay in a rental apartment with a pet.
- Freedom from obligations based on the pet’s weight, breed, or size.
Along with this, getting an ESA letter for a pet can be helpful for students who seek emotional assistance from their pet. Most college and school dorms allow students to stay with their ESAs if they acquire an ESA letter as proof that they are emotionally benefitting from their pet. An ESA letter marks that their pet’s presence is essential for performing well in school or college for them.
Similarly, someone who goes to work and is emotionally dependent on their pet can certify their pet with an ESA letter. As such, employers are not obliged to allow ESAs in the workplace. However, getting an ESA letter will for sure mark the importance of a pet in an employee’s life, and it could be a piece of legitimate proof that it is significant for them to enhance their performance at work.
ESA letter gives a special privilege to choose almost any animal as your ESA and stay with them. As long as the pet doesn’t seem a threat to the landlord’s property, you can choose almost any pet and claim it as your emotional support animal with a legitimate ESA letter signed by your state-licensed health professional. From emotional support dogs to cats, rabbit to a hamster, peacock to a pigeon, you can adopt any animal as your ESA if you think their presence makes you feel relaxed, calm, and somehow relieve your mental or emotional illness.
Although laws officialized animals’ role in relieving mental or emotional illness symptoms quite later by terming these animals as emotional support animals, however, the mysticism of the animal-human relationship has existed on earth for ages. Studies also support the wonders of animal companionship and how it affects human mental health. If you also suffer from mental issues, getting an emotional support animal can be the correct choice! Benefit from the emotional assistance of a pet without any necessity to spend money on medications and harming your body with synthetic substances.
