Guide dog user here. My life and those of other guide and service dog handlers have been made much more inconvenient by the abuse of the “emotional support animal” label. I don’t want to dismiss the concept wholesale, as my guide dog has been a tremendous emotional anchor in addition to a mobility aid, and I wouldn’t want to deny others that benefit.

However, as wonderful a dog as Brownie surely is, can he traverse a grocery store without sticking his nose in the produce? Can he tolerate walking inches away from cars going past at 30 MPH? Will he get back on track if distracted by other animals? Can he board and ride an elevator, escalator, bus, or plane without panicking? Will he tolerate a fixed bathroom schedule and can he hold it for hours if that schedule cannot be met? Can he ignore others trying to pet or feed him? Will he lie still and quiet in an unfamiliar place? Traditional service dogs are bred and trained to handle these things, and not every dog is cut out for service work. I have trained with three guide dogs, and every time someone in my class has had to swap dogs because the dog they were first given showed resource guarding behavior, or raised its hackles at another dog, or was too flighty around cars, etc. And this was after selective breeding, puppy screening, a year’s worth of socialization with a puppy raiser, and months of professional training.

Hi OP. I am familiar with this topic because of the kind of work that I do.

As others have described in this thread, “emotional support animals” and “service animals” are different entities with different requirements and privileges.

Service animals generally have specific training to perform specific tasks to support an individual who has a disability. Service animals have fairly broad societal privileges based on the protections described by the Americans with Disabilities Act. You could read more about that here: https://www.ada.gov/topics/service-animals/.

An emotional support animal is a much broader definition which describes an animal whose presence may reduce an individual’s distress. Emotional support animals have fewer societal privileges. Some organizations or businesses may allow the presence of an emotional support animal, but others may not. The main legal protection relating specifically to emotional support animals is that the Fair Housing Act protects owners of emotional support animals from discrimination in housing, such as being denied housing or having to pay additional fees.

Another place where you could read more about the distinctions between the two at: https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/service-dog-training-101/

There aren’t really any organization that I know of which formally designate animals as emotional support animals, other than some online websites where you can buy and print your own certificate if you are interested in doing so.

There are many instances where a healthcare worker, such as a doctor or therapist, may recommend the presence of an emotional support animal, however. This kind of recommendation is typically based on the healthcare conditions experienced by the human, which the healthcare worker can attest to as being consistent with medical necessity, such that the presence of an emotional support animal is recommended as clinically appropriate to support the healthcare needs of the human.

NABDad describes a good example of an appropriate recommendation for the use of an emotional support animal in this thread. If you read his description carefully, he says that the doctor made the recommendation based on his daughter’s healthcare needs, and then they went and found the guinea pig to serve as a form of healthcare treatment after that. The doctor’s assessment was based on NABDad’s daughter, not on the guinea pig.

If you would like Brownie to be recognized as an emotional support animal for your roommate, the process would generally be for your roommate to contact a healthcare worker, such as a doctor or therapist, so that your roommate can discuss their healthcare needs.

Emotional support animals do not qualify as service animals under the ADA. There is no process or organization to make him an “official” emotional support animal, though there are many companies that will gladly sell you a badge, certificate, or harness.

My daughter got an emotional support animal before she went to college.

She graduated from high school in the middle of the pandemic, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it through college, but she found out that if she had an emotional support animal, she could have it with her in the dorm.

She spoke to her doctor, got the forms, and we found a guinea pig at a shelter.

Normally a guinea pig needs other guinea pigs around to be healthy and safe. Her guinea pig was surrendered from a home that had 30 guinea pigs and he was severely abused by his siblings. His ears were torn, and he’s got scars on his belly. He didn’t tolerate the presence of other guinea pigs.

There was a day before she left for college when my daughter was depressed and just spending all day in bed. I pointed out to her that she was responsible for the guinea pig. She could be depressed, and unmotivated, but she had to clean his pen every day, feed him, and take care of him.

It worked. She graduated in January. He’s her emotional support animal, and she’s his emotional support human. She’s his herd, so she has to keep him company. Obviously, there’s more going on there, but I’m just taking about the emotional support animal.

He’s actually gotten better too. He still doesn’t live with other guinea pigs, but he doesn’t run away if he hears them anymore.

The only legal benefit to having an emotional support animal that I’m aware of in the U.S. is you can’t be denied housing.

Fuck you for abusing a system meant to help people with crippling anxiety just for funsies.

Maybe try for therapy dog certification. Appropriate training and testing is available in some places, not sure about Mississippi. Many hospitals and nursing homes recognize it and will allow certified dogs and handlers into their facilities.

For an ESA, all you really need is a therapist’s note, but recognition isn’t guaranteed.

Get a therapist and ask them to write a letter for you

You literally just talk to your doctor and ask then to write an esa letter for you, or buy one from some online scam website and hope the landlord doesnt call to check.

Last I heard it was slightly backwards.

You need to find someone who needs an ESA and get a professional to sign off on that for that person and then their animal can become an ESA.