Among the many emotional support animals around today, you may be wondering if it’s possible to adopt an emotional support chicken – after all, these companions aren’t just feathered friends; they can be wonderful companions that help to create routine and address negative symptoms of a mental health condition. Below, we discuss more about emotional support animals, including whether or not it is possible to add an emotional support chicken to your treatment plan.
What Is an Emotional Support Animal?
An emotional support animal is any animal that helps their owner deal with negative emotions, stress, and other symptoms related to a mental health condition. Emotional support animals are not trained, and they can be any type of animal, including less traditional pets like snakes, rabbits, and fish.
Emotional support animals must be approved by a mental healthcare provider, and the owner must receive a valid ESA letter in order for their companion animal to access certain rights. ESAs can be somewhat controversial, but they are proven as helpful companions and highly beneficial when it comes to increasing positive feelings, decreasing stress, and creating routine.
What Kind of Animal Can Be an Emotional Support Animal?
Any animal can be an emotional support animal, as long as they help an individual deal with their mental health conditions. ESAs provide relief, comfort, and companionship to owners, and they are often a key part of treatment plans for anxiety, depression, chronic stress, and PTSD.
It’s important to note, however, that exotic animals, animals that cannot feasibly be cared for by the owner, and animals that are illegal to own in your state, cannot be emotional support animals. For example, some counties might make it illegal to own livestock within the county limits – you could not have an emotional support goat in your rented home if this is a law that applies to you.
Speak to your mental healthcare provider about the type of ESA that fits best into your treatment plan.
Are ESAs the Same as Service Animals?
Emotional support animals are not the same as service animals. To start with, service animals must be dogs or, sometimes, miniature horses, and they must be trained to help their owners with a disability-related task. On the other hand, emotional support animals can be any animal, as long as they help their owner deal with a mental health condition, and they must be approved by a licensed mental healthcare provider.
Service animals have much more wide-reaching public access rights and rights in general due to their necessity in an owner’s life, while emotional support animals primarily have the right to live alongside their owner in any suitable area of housing without the owner adhering to pet and breed restrictions or paying additional pet fees.
Can I Have an Emotional Support Chicken?
It is technically possible to have an emotional support chicken as part of your treatment plan, but there are many factors that can affect how feasible it is to bring an emotional support chicken into your life. For example, you must have a space that can properly support your emotional support chicken, your landlord or property manager must approve of your emotional support chicken, and you must have a valid emotional support animal letter from your mental healthcare provider.
If you get all of the basic steps fulfilled and your emotional support chicken is valid, this animal may be a loving and wonderful companion to add to your mental health treatment plan.
Will an Apartment Let Me Have an Emotional Support Chicken?
One of the biggest benefits of having an emotional support animal is the right to live alongside your animal and request housing accommodations that let you avoid pet fees and breed restrictions. However, when you are trying to live with a non-traditional ESA, such as an emotional support chicken, taking advantage of these rights can become more difficult.
Your emotional support chicken is unlikely to be suited for apartment living, and you must have ample space and outdoor setups for your chickens to be happy. You cannot safely and easily live in an apartment complex, or even a shared house with limited yard space, with an emotional support chicken. These reasons alone may result in being denied accommodations to live with your emotional support chicken.
Furthermore, landlords are legally allowed to deny your emotional support chicken if they pose a threat to the property or significant financial risk, which an emotional support chicken might do when they are not being cared for properly.
If an apartment or rented space lets you have an emotional support chicken, you will be required to pay for any damages or clean-up required.
Will My Emotional Support Chicken Have Access Rights?
Your emotional support chicken will technically only have the right of fair housing under the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA). However, chickens are a non-traditional animal to own, and landlords are legally allowed to deny ESA accommodation requests for animals that pose significant health and safety risks to other tenants, or those that are unable to be cared for in your chosen housing unit. This means that your emotional support chicken will be difficult to bring into housing with you unless you are renting from a private landlord or renting something like a single family home with ample outdoor space.
Additionally, traditional ESAs can sometimes accompany their owners to places such as pet-friendly restaurant patios. While it’s easy to bring a dog or even a cat to a space like this, an animal like an emotional support chicken may be more difficult to take along with you into public.
Where Do I Get an Emotional Support Chicken?
If you are set on getting an emotional support chicken for your treatment plan, you will need to ensure you have the space, finances, and ability to take care of these animals. Because chickens are group animals, you will need to keep in mind that you will usually need more than one chicken – raising a sole chicken is likely to be unhealthy for the animal’s state of mind.
You can contact local farms or other reputable and ethical adoption services for guidance when it comes to adopting an emotional support chicken and learning how to properly care for your hen.
Receiving the ESA Help You Need
Adding an emotional support animal to your life is a perfectly valid way to seek relief from certain mental health conditions – many therapists and other mental healthcare professionals are willing to work with you to help you get valid ESA relief. If you are interested in a more non-traditional animal, you might want to adopt an emotional support chicken.
While it is technically possible to adopt such a non-traditional emotional support animal, it’s important to keep in mind that living in an apartment complex or other shared housing with an emotional support chicken might not be feasible. Always explore your options and remember that you will need to properly care for your ESA if you wish to benefit from their companionship and support.