Throughout my high school years, I struggled with anxiety and depression. Which is not uncommon, in fact, “anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S.” (Facts & Statistics, Anxiety and Depression Association of America). Though only a third of people with anxiety and depression receive treatment, I was fortunate enough to have access to some of the best treatment facilities. However, when seeing both a therapist and psychiatrist once a week became insufficient, my psychiatrist suggested that I begin taking anti-depressants. After a year and a half of mixing and matching medications, I eventually found a combination that worked for me. While I felt an improvement in my mood, it was minimal at best. Ultimately, the mental health professionals I were seeing suggested that I get an emotional support animal.

An emotional support animal is an animal that is prescribed by a medical professional to a person with a mental disability. By definition, emotional support animals do not require any specific training nor do they perform any specific tasks. Simply put, the animal’s mere presence benefits its owner. As an avid animal lover, faced with my imminent move from home and still struggling with mental health issues, I was thrilled to be able to have a pet accompany me to college. However, though my doctor was adamant about the benefits of emotional support animals, I was skeptical at what improvement this animal would make on my mental health. Despite my uncertainty, I decided to adopt a kitten named Ruby. To my surprise, having Ruby allowed me to finally gain full control over my mental health because she made me feel like I was not alone in this struggle against my mental illnesses. Ruby became more than a pet to me. It may sound ridiculous to some, but having an emotional support animal literally changed my life. 

Thousands of people like myself have had positive experiences with their emotional support animals. However, though emotional support animals have been scientifically proven to improve the mental health of their owners, emotional support animal owners are only protected under the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) which only allow them to live where ever they please with their animal and fly with their animal, respectively. However, they are not protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Americans with Disabilities Act only acknowledges service animals and emotional support animals are not considered service animals. The definition of service animals provided in the law states that the service animals must “be individually trained to work or perform tasks” (Bourland 198). This has resulted in the confusion and stigma associated with emotional support animals and their legality. The inclusion of emotional support animals under the Americans with Disabilities Act as service animals would significantly reduce issues that emotional support animal owners have and the issues that others have with emotional support animals because many of these problems regarding the animals stem from lack of clear government laws and regulation.

The vague law has negatively impacted many emotional support animal owners who rely on their animals to be able to function naturally in public life. For example, a young female, Sara, had struggled with anxiety and depression which eventually lead to the development of agoraphobia. After many years of ineffective treatments and medications, Sara’s doctor prescribed her an emotional support animal. With her new dog, Gatsby, her mental health began to improve. She eventually, at the advisement of her doctor, left her house for the first time in months. Sara took Gatsby and tried to meet some friends at a restaurant where she was barred entry because the restaurant had a no pets policy. After trying to explain that Gatsby was not merely a pet, but an emotional support animal, she was asked to provide proof of the dog’s identity, which she did not have because there is no way to truly identify emotional support animals. After this embarrassing incident, Sara returned home and maintained that she would never leave her home again. Though many people’s situations are not nearly as dire as Sara’s, there are those like her who truly need the support of their animal to help them function in society (Bourland 197-198).

If we are to include emotional support animal owners in the Americans with Disabilities Act, then it is of utmost importance to understand the benefits having an emotional support animal. Most research has proven that emotional support animals have real benefits for people with mental health issues. For example, one study found that animal assisted therapy could help people with mental illnesses by, “improving social and communication skills, easing anxiety, improving mood, helping independent living, [and] improving emphatic skills” (Gold). All of these aspects help those that are disabled lead normal lives. In addition, other studies have found that the mere presence of a well-behaved animal can cause people to have more regular breathes, slower heart rates, relaxed muscles, and an overall decline in anxiety (Gold). For someone who has trouble participating in society normally because of a mental health issue, the impacts of emotional support animals could life altering. 

Another perk of utilizing emotional support animals could be that patients could be less reliant on possibly addicting prescriptions. Rather than prescribing or increasing dosages of anti-depressants and other medicines, a patient might avoid having to take medications or increasing doses if he or she had an emotional support animal. This is extremely important right now when the United States is seeing an epidemic of prescription drug abuse (DuPont 2). The state of our country’s mental health is a huge issue to begin with, but coupled with drug abuse the problem becomes even more dangerous than it already is. Additionally, a recent report released by the Center for Disease Control stated that the United States was failing when it came to meeting our mental health goals for the population because the suicide rate and rate of teenage depression has increased significantly among other problems (Miller). Clearly, the country needs to make major changes in the way we treat mental health issues if we want to see improvements in the population’s mental wellness. Emotional support animals could be part of the answer to improving society’s mental wellness. With all the benefits that come with emotional support animals, it is a wonder why more mental health professionals do not prescribe them.

Though they have been scientifically proven to positively impact people with mental health issues, people still have many concerns about emotional support animals. One of the few rights that emotional support animal owners are afforded under the Air Carrier Access Act is the right to freely fly with their animal. However, one concern is the rights of people with allergies to animals to fly without having an allergic reaction. In addition, due to people exploiting the law’s confusing language to be able to easily fly with their pet, there have been times when unruly pets have become disruptive during flights (Christopher). These are just a few concerns regarding emotional support animals and these issues exist because the laws regarding emotional support animals are not clearly written. If there was one standard law regulating emotional support animals which included a harsher punishment for exploiting emotional support animals, then people who do not actually have mental illnesses and who just want to be able to easily fly with their pet would be less likely to abuse the right to have an emotional support animal. Thus, there would be less issues with emotional support animals. 

Though it may seem simple to allow the mentally disabled to have access to their emotional support animals in their own homes or apartments, the Fair Housing Act makes it complicated because it does not address how places such as colleges and dormitories should properly address requests for emotional support animals. For example, colleges have trouble completing requests for emotional support animals because they do not understand how to properly and legally check if an emotional support animal is legitimate. One study of university counseling centers found that almost every university had different procedures when it came to approving emotional support animals because the Fair Housing Act does not clearly state how these kinds of issues should be handled (Kogan 274-276). The study concluded with a call for clearer regulations of emotional support animals at the federal level so students can more seamlessly request to have emotional support animal on campus and universities know what the legal procedures are and how to handle those requests. It is especially vital that students have access to their emotional support animals because the Center for Disease Control’s recent report shows that, “the rate of depression in teens has increased, up from 8.3 percent in 2008 to 10.7 percent in 2013” (Miller). At a time when mental illness is on the rise in students it is imperative that students have access to the treatment they need. This call for clearer regulations is not intended to make it nearly impossible to have an emotional support animal, rather it is meant to make the process of requesting and having one more simple for both the university counseling centers and the students. 

Contrary to popular belief that clearer laws would limit the rights of emotional support animal owners, clearer laws about emotional support animals would not mean that people who need them will not have access to their emotional support animals. Conversely, they would make emotional support animal owners lives even easier for a couple reasons. Firstly, clearer laws would mean that less people who do not need emotional support animals to help aid treatment with mental illness would be able to claim that their pet is an emotional support animal. This would legitimize the emotional support animal owners who actually need their animal to improve the state of their mental health. Secondly, clearer regulation would make it easier for emotional support animal owners to obtain access to their rights. For example, one of the issues regarding emotional support animals is recognizing them as different from pets and service animals. Service animals are professionally trained to perform services specific to their owner’s needs. However, because emotional support animal do not provide a specific service, it is simply their presence that helps their owner, it is often difficult to differentiate between a pet and an emotional support animal. This is made even more difficult because there is no way to register an emotional support animal with the federal government. However, if all emotional support animals were required to have a special tag that identified them as an emotional support animal and were registered with the national government, then emotional support animal owners would not have to deal with people constantly questioning their rights to have their animal. Thus, many owners of emotional support animals are pushing the federal government to adopt more comprehendible regulations of emotional support animals (Hendrickson). 

In order to help alleviate some of the issues regarding emotional support animals, congress needs to reform the Americans with Disabilities Act. There needs to be a government entity that enforces the laws and regulations regarding emotional support animals. This entity would make sure that the new laws and regulations would include emotional support animals as a certain type of service animal. The reason for this is because service animals are allowed to accompany their owners in public places whereas emotional support animals are only allowed on flights with their owner and all housing regardless of the “no pets policies.” Emotional support animals need to be shown more distinct than other general pets. Emotional support animals have a specific role and are prescribed their owners as their presence improves the symptoms of depression and anxiety. The general house pet is not prescribed to their owners but it is more of a luxury to own a pet than a medical necessity. A certain registration within the government would require people with mental illnesses prescribed with an emotional support animal to register their emotional support animal with the government stating their specific role within their owner’s life. The owner would also receive a special tag and certain paperwork that would go along with the emotional support animal to have when bringing their animal in public. 

Every year nearly 100,000 emotional support animals make their way into airplane cabins (Gold). This number has become as high as it is because of the utilization of the confusing laws that was discussed previously and the fact that people are becoming more aware of the benefits to having an emotional support animal. The publicity emotional support animals have recently had in the news has caused more people begin to realize that they can exploit the law or that an emotional support animal could be the answer to combatting their mental illness. Regardless of the reason, the number is increasing quickly, and thus more and more issues are bound to arise if the United States does not reform their policies regarding emotional support animals. The laws should be altered in a way that makes it harder for people to wrongly claim that their pet is an emotional support animal and make it easier for those who do need them for legitimate medical purposes to access their rights. The new law should not make it nearly impossible for those who need an emotional support animal to have access to them. If the latter of the two options occurs, then the country could see disastrous effects such as an increase in prescription drug abuse, depression, anxiety, suicide, school dropouts and much more among a long list of other results of untreated mental illness. The United States would not be banning emotional support animals; they would be barring people from accessing treatments for medical issues. Therefore, it is vital that we have a law that recognize emotional support animals as a type of service animal, addresses the other issues surrounding them, and establishes an entity that helps enforce the law so that people who do not need an emotional support animal for an authentic mental illness do not take advantage of the right to have an emotional support animal. Emotional support animals could be life changing to the nearly 40 million people in the United States that struggle with anxiety and depression on a daily basis like Ruby was for me (Facts & Statistics, Anxiety and Depression Association of America). It would be negligent of our government to ignore these issues given the repercussions that it could have on millions of people. However, until the United States restructures the laws regarding emotional support animals, American citizens will continue to suffer from mental illness and others will benefit from the exploitation of the vague laws. It is a right of a person suffering from a mental illness to have access to proper treatment, like an emotional support animal, without having to go through the issues that are brought upon them. 
