HABRI Central

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) service animals are: “dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities” ( ADA, 2015). On the other hand, emotional support animals are: “dogs that provide comfort and support in forms of affection and companionship for an individual suffering from various mental and emotional conditions.” In addition, an emotional support animal is not required to perform any specific tasks for a disability like service dogs are (Ibid).

The ADA limits the number of questions that can be asked to protect the privacy of utilizers. In fact, the only two questions businesses, veterinarians, enforcement officers, and the general public can ask are: “Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?” and “What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?” (ADA, 2017). Due to a lack in federal regulations, little to no knowledge on service dog definitions, and a failed universal symbol for service dogs, there has been an increasing number of fraudulent users. Thus, this occurrence has trumped the beneficial use of the service for the community of people it was intended for.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

1. Animal roles
2. Children with disabilties
3. Dogs
4. Mammals
5. open access
6. Pets and companion animals