The Importance of Emotional Support Animals (ESAs)
by A Wheeler
I'd like to start this article with a distinction. Emotional support animals (ESAs) are not the same thing as service dogs (SDs), which also include pigs.. They have separate purposes and jobs. The following focuses on and advocates for the importance of ESAs and the legal recognition of ESAs under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
What makes an ESA different from a service dog or pig?
Under Title II and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service animal means any dog or pig that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. In comparison, an ESA is any animal that provides emotional support for one or more symptoms of a person’s disability. They provide friendship/companionship, relieve loneliness, and sometimes can help with depression, anxiety, and certain phobias. But they do not have special training to perform tasks that assist disabled folx. Additionally, ESAs aren’t just limited to dogs or pigs. For example, I have two ESAs who are cats.
In order to illustrate what an ESA’s job might look like, I’ll talk a bit about my cats. Theo is very personable and easy going, so she helps me regulate my emotions when I’m feeling depressed or lonely.I can pick her up, hug her, and she’ll start purring. My other cat, Karma, is much heavier and larger, so I hold him during panic attacks. He serves as a purring weighted stuffed animal of sorts. Aside from this, Karma has learned when I take my meds at night. If he thinks I ‘forgot’ (aka I’m just a little late to the draw) he meows and tries to get my attention until I do. Or he’ll sit by my medicine on the counter waiting. Theo will stay with me if I throw up, and she sits on my lap until the worst symptoms pass. This helps so I don’t move around too much, which makes my nausea worse.
My cats never underwent any sort of training. They just learned from me what I needed. To be frank, without them, I wouldn’t be around anymore. To me and so many others, ESAs are life changing and can have such a positive impact in peoples’ lives.
All of that's to say is I find that ESAs are vastly underappreciated and overlooked for how important they are.
For example, many apartment complexes have extensive loopholes you have to go through to prove that you need your ESA, or you’ll be charged pet rent. I remember at my current complex, they wouldn’t accept documentation from an out of state provider. This is inequitable, because establishing care in a new state may take months or longer and in those months, someone would be saddled with at least hundreds of dollars of pet rent. ESAs and their parents/owners deserve better.
One study found that after a 12-month period with ESAs, there was a significant decrease in depression symptoms based on the Beck Depression Inventory and statistical analysis demonstrated a large effect. Additionally, according to the UCLA loneliness scale, there was a significant decrease in loneliness and anxiety symptoms on the Beck Anxiety Inventory after the 12-month period. In that study, during the qualitative part of data collection, participants claimed that their ESA knew something was wrong when they were experiencing symptoms. This study clearly demonstrates the importance of ESAs.
I hope that knowing how important ESAs are to people will spark advocacy among clinicians so ESAs can be considered under the ADA. Right now, they are not.
In my research, I saw that there have been attempts at outlining new regulations, but nothing concrete has been passed. I also hope people will stop speaking ill of ESAs. I know some people do try to bring pets into establishments under the guise of being a service or ESA when they are not. But I’d wager a bigger number of people need their service animal in that establishment or wish they could have their ESA there for support.
ESAs are invaluable for so many people and allow many to live their lives with more ease and less pain. They deserve respect and the same consideration as a service animal in my opinion. They do different tasks but can be life changing. Making them no less valuable or needed.
References
Service animal or emotional support animal: What’s the difference? Service Animal or Emotional Support Animal: What’s the Difference? | ADA National Network. (2026, January 8). https://adata.org/service-animal-resource-hub-differences
Hoy-Gerlach, J., Vincent, A., Scheuermann, B., & Ojha, M. (2022). Exploring benefits of Emotional Support Animals (esas): A longitudinal pilot study with adults with serious mental illness (SMI). Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2022.0016
