Service and Emotional Support Animals

Service Animal

Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA

www.ada.gov

Emotional Support Animal (Assistance Animal)

An assistance animal is an animal that works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or that provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified effects of a person’s disability.  An assistance animal is not a pet.

www.hud.gov 

According to the Fair Housing Act (FHA), a person with a documented disability is permitted to have an Emotional Support Animal in their individual dwelling when a professional health care provider has deemed it necessary for the individual’s emotional wellbeing.Students interested in registering for an ESA should read the Assistance Animal Policy for detailed information on ​the registration process and to become familiar with the rules and regulations regarding ESAs on campus. Please note that any animal brought onto campus before proper approval has been granted will be subject to immediate removal, and the student will be subject to fines.