Having heard the phrase ‘emotional support animals don’t have legal rights of access’ or ‘emotional support animals are not legally recognised’ more than once and the focus always on assistance dogs I decided to have a look into whether there was separate legislation that covered only assistance or support dogs. And guess what? There isn’t separate legislation but rather details within the Equality Act.

Assistance dogs are all covered by the Equality Act 2010 (EA2012 section 173)¹ which lays out that in relation to protecting the rights of disabled people accessing private hire transport, an Assistance dog is
(a) a dog which has been trained to guide a blind person;
(b) a dog which has been trained to assist a deaf person;
(c) a dog which has been trained by a prescribed charity to assist a disabled person who has a disability that consists of epilepsy or otherwise affects the person’s mobility, manual dexterity, physical coordination or ability to lift, carry or otherwise move everyday objects;
(d) a dog of a prescribed category which has been trained to assist a disabled person who has a disability (other than one falling within paragraph (c)) of a prescribed kind.

Did you notice that this section only relates to disabled people accessing private hire transport, yet is extrapolated to other accessibility areas? And I would argue that Emotional Support Animals, while no specifically mentioned here are covered by subsection (d) above. While the Act specifies assistance dogs I don’t believe this should be excluding any other support animals.

Assistance/Support animals are also not pets but rather seen as auxiliary aids meaning they help a disabled person to live a life as normal as possible, whether that be as sight for a blind person, hearing for a deaf person, doing daily tasks like opening doors or picking things up around the home, or in my case providing relief from the overwhelming anxiety caused by being out of my home.

The only difference between Emotional Support Animals and Assistance Animals is the awareness of what each type of animal does. Given the mental anguish that the entire world went through during 2020’s Global Pandemic it should be no surprise that ESA’s are becoming more known. And yes I know that assistance dogs go through intensive training but most ESA handlers are sensible and will ensure their animals will be trained well to be in public and not cause a nuisance.

There are no centralised registers as such for assistance dogs other than through the members of the Assistance Dogs UK where the dogs are issued an ADUK Identification Booklet if they have been trained by an ADUK Member organisation. This is where emotional support animals are a little ahead of the game as there is a register for them through Emotional Support Animals Registry UK which has been going since 2017 And where businesses can do an independent check to see if an ESA ID card is genuine.

The Equality Act 2010 requires that disabled people have the same rights to services such as accommodation, restaurants, pubs and cafes as everyone else. This is done by making reasonable adjustments in order to avoid discriminating against disabled people.

These reasonable adjustments will range from creating an access route for a person with a wheelchair to modifying a “no animal’s policy” in order that a disabled person may be accompanied by their assistance/support animal.

Emotional Support Animals enable their owners to be independent by providing emotional support by their very presence with their handler. Handlers like myself who struggle with social anxiety would not be able to leave home if not for having our ESA with us. For this reason, it is reasonable to allow ESA’s to accompany their owners into most situations where pet animals would not be permitted, or for service providers to make reasonable adjustments in providing safe and secure accommodation for an ESA and support for its handler in the animals absence, in, for example, an infection control clinical setting.

A disabled person should not be put at a disadvantage due to their assistance/support animal. For example, a disabled person should not be asked to sit in a specific area to keep the animal out of the way or be asked to pay an additional fee for cleaning.

As I mentioned in my previous blog we need to broaden our acceptance that other animals can offer the same support as dogs do and we should be looking to those who have pioneered before us when it comes to levels of acceptable behaviour, which in this instance is Assistance Dogs. Let’s stop animal discrimination by thinking that only dogs can be assistance/support animals.²

So before you decide to spew that ESA’s don’t have legal rights, stop. They may not be recognised in the same way that assistance dogs are but their handlers do have exactly the same protections as assistance dog handlers and by not allowing them access with their handlers, businesses are in contravention of the Equality Act 2010.

Notes:
1. The Equality and Human Rights Commission states that assistance dogs:

• are highly trained
• will not wander freely around the premises
• will sit or lie quietly on the floor next to its owner and are trained to go to the toilet on command and so are unlikely to foul in a public place
• Most are instantly recognisable by the harness or identifying dog jacket they wear.

The above list can and should definitely be applied to ESA’s.

2. This does not negate the issue of proving ESA animal behaviour is appropriate and I do believe there should be some sort of regulated assessment to show that an ESA is under the control of its handler.