A crackdown is underway on Americans seeking to pass off their pets as service animals.

In recent years, more than than a dozen U.S. states have passed legislation to prevent the exercise—in a bid to protect those for whom service animals provide vital support.

Such laws make it a misdemeanor to correspond an untrained dog as a service beast, and often come up with fines of upward to $500.

Service animals are highly trained in order to help people living with a disability. The dog's duties might include: guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, or protecting a person who is having a seizure.

Governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations must permit service animals to accompany their owners in all areas open to the public.

But in contempo years a surge in the number of registrations for "emotional support animal," which have fewer legal protections, has blurred the lines for many businesses and frequently acquired confusion.

Which Animals Can Exist Service Animals?

Under federal legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Human action (ADA), only dogs can exist service animals.

These must be "trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities," and should be harnessed, leashed, or tethered, unless their handler is unable to use such controls or it would interfere with the brute's safety or effectiveness.

In addition to the potential duties listed to a higher place, service dogs might also be trained to remind a person with mental illness to accept prescribed medications, or calm a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack.

While in that location is no certification or official national registry of legitimate service dogs, the American Humane Association believes there to exist most xx,000 working in the U.Southward.

The ADA has a separate provision on miniature horses trained to aid people with disabilities. Under the legislation, public places can be required to modify their policies to permit such miniature horses—mostly standing 24 inches to 34 inches to the shoulder—"where reasonable."

Is That the Only Definition?

No. The ADA'south definition of service animals differs from other legislation.

Under the Air Carrier Access Deed (ACAA), which aims to prevent discrimination confronting passengers with disabilities by air carriers, service animals are limited to dogs.

These must be "trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability."

The ADA and ACAA exercise non consider "emotional back up animals" to be service animals.

Airlines sometimes allow passengers to take emotional support animals on board flights; however, many have tightened rules in recent years amid a rise in demand.

In 2018, United Airlines banned a adult female from taking a large "emotional-support peacock" named Dexter on a flight.

Trained dog assists a man.
Stock image: A trained dog assists a human in a wheelchair. Getty Images

Another piece of legislation, The Off-white Housing Act, which aims to forestall housing discrimination, has its ain definition of an "assistance beast."

Nether that legislation, an assistance animal "works, provides aid, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability," or "provides emotional support that alleviates i or more identified effects of a person'southward inability."

That does not rule out the inclusion of emotional support animals; even so the U.S. Housing Department states: "An help brute is not a pet."

Some country legislation as well defines service animals in other terms.

What About Emotional Support Animals?

The number of Emotional Support Animal (ESA) registrations have rocketed in recent years.

While no national agency keeps track of the numbers, a study from the University of California at Davis plant ESA registrations by animal control facilities in the state increased one,000 per centum between 2002 and 2012.

Gaining such status requires simply a therapist's letter. Alternatively, The Guardian reports, for-profit websites, known to some every bit "ESA mills," will provide a quick disability appraisal by a clinician before selling official-looking items such as high-visibility vests for your domestic dog.

Registered ESAs come with perks—admitting fewer than those of service animals. Under the Off-white Housing Deed, for instance, ESAs cannot be charged pet deposits and may exist gratuitous to motion into animate being-free apartments.

Correction 9/24/21: This commodity has been rewritten to accurately define the difference between service dogs and emotional back up animals.