Our certified therapy pets are NOT service animals, nor are they emotional support animals. Under the Americans for Disabilities Act (ADA), “comfort”, “therapy”, or “emotional support” animals don’t meet the definition of a service animal. Here are the differences:
Service animals are animals that are specially trained to help a person with disabilities and are to be focused solely on that one person.
An emotional support animal, which may be any type of pet, is an animal that provides relief to individuals with “psychiatric disability through companionship”. They’re not recognized as service animals under the ADA.
Therapy pets are animals that volunteer under the supervision of a certified pet therapy organization with their approved handler to improve the lives of others. Therapy pets don’t have the same public access as service or emotional support animals.
Handlers of therapy pets must never present their animal as a service or emotional support animal, nor try to gain public access to planes, restaurants, public buildings, etc., and could risk losing their therapy pet status if they misrepresent themselves.
