Emotional support animals (ESAs) are special companion animals that help to relieve the symptoms of certain mental health conditions. ESAs have special rights and aren’t treated the same as your regular pets in North Dakota, though according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), they’re different from service animals.
In this article, we are going to explain everything there is to know about North Dakota’s emotional support animal laws, the difference between ESAs and service animals, and how you can get an emotional support animal.
What Is an Emotional Support Animal (ESA)?
According to the North Dakota Protection and Agency, an emotional service animal is defined as animals that “provide companionship, relieve loneliness, or help with depression, anxiety, and certain phobias” and “do not have the specialized training to perform tasks that assist people with disabilities, nor are they limited to working with people with disabilities.”
As you can tell from that definition, there are two things that are important when it comes to defining an ESA:
- They must be able to provide emotional support to their owners or help them cope with a mental health condition, such as depression and anxiety.
- They aren’t required to be trained to do any task, and they shouldn’t necessarily have to work with just people with disabilities.
Whether an animal is an ESA or not depends on its ability to help you feel positive emotions when you are feeling depressed or lonely. While cats and dogs are usually the most popular ESAs, these companion animals can be any species as long as you feel better by having them around.
Other than cats and dogs, some examples of ESAs include birds, mice, hamsters, ferrets, snakes, minipigs, hedgehogs, and rabbits.
ESAs don’t have any sort of training requirement. However, you do need an emotional support animal (ESA) letter from a licensed mental health professional in North Dakota in order for your companion animal to be a valid ESA and not just a pet.
What Is an Emotional Support Animal Letter?
An emotional support animal letter is a document that all ESA owners need for their pet’s status to be considered legally valid. The letter should only be obtained from a licensed healthcare professional in North Dakota. It usually contains details about your mental health condition, the doctor, and your pet.
To get an ESA letter, you have to book an appointment with your doctor or a mental healthcare professional and tell them about your condition in detail. You don’t have to take your pet with you, but you have to be honest about how it helps you get through the day. Your provider will carefully evaluate your mental health and your pet’s role in getting you the emotional support you need.
This whole process shouldn’t take too much time, but you may have to see your provider multiple times before they can assess your condition thoroughly and give you the ESA letter. You may have to continue seeing them even after you’ve received the letter.
The ESA letter gives your ESA legal recognition. You must have this letter on file if your pet lives with you in an apartment that has a no-pet policy.
While there is no need for any other sort of identification, you can apply for an ESA ID card and certification. There are various online sites that offer such services, but you have to be careful, as many of them aren’t legitimate.
You should avoid signing up with a site that sells ESA letters without first getting an appointment with a licensed mental health professional in North Dakota. An ESA letter that’s obtained without proper authorization is invalid, and showing it to people to claim benefits can get you into legal trouble.
What Is a Service Animal?
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which is a federal law and is thus applicable in North Dakota, service animals are defined as “any dog 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. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, are not service animals for the purposes of this definition. The work or tasks performed by a service animal must be directly related to the individual’s disability.”
Unlike ESAs, service animals require specialized training to perform a task for a person with a disability. You don’t need to get any sort of letter from a doctor, and no identification (such as a service animal vest) is required. The animal must simply be able to do a task that’s related to its handler’s disability.
Service animals are covered under two laws, the ADA and the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). They have more rights than ESAs when it comes to public places such as restaurants, trains, buses, cafes, and even schools and hospitals. You can either train them yourself or hire a professional trainer to do it for you.
While ESAs can be any species, only dogs are legally recognized as service animals. Miniature horses can also be service animals, according to the ADA, but not in North Dakota.
Here are some examples of service animals:
- Guide dogs are service animals that help people with visual impairments
- Mobility assistance dogs support people who have mobility issues and struggle with moving from one place to another
- Psychiatric service dogs help people with mental disorders and perform various other tasks, such as reminding their owners to take their medications
- Hearing dogs help people with hearing impairments
Note that it may seem as if psychiatric service dogs have the same purpose as emotional support animals, but they are different in the eyes of the law. Psychiatric service dogs have been specially trained to help people manage their mental disorders, and they may perform specific tasks, such as identifying hallucinations or calming down panic attacks. Conversely, emotional support animals help people feel better just by being there for them.
Emotional Support Animal Laws in North Dakota
There is only one law that grants special rights to emotional support animals in North Dakota. The ADA and the ACAA don’t recognize ESAs as service animals, so they’re not given the same legal privileges.
Let’s take a look at all three laws in detail.
1. Fair Housing Act (FHA)
The FHA gives housing rights to people with disabilities. It recognizes ESAs as necessary companion animals and gives them fair housing rights. According to the FHA, housing providers are legally obligated to make reasonable accommodations to allow people with mental or physical disabilities to live with their ESAs (or service animals), even if the property has a no-pet policy.
They aren’t allowed to charge you a pet deposit or a cleaning fee, but you are responsible for paying for any damages caused to the property by your ESA.
University housing must also allow people with disabilities to live with their ESAs on campus. However, most universities have certain places, such as laboratories and dining areas, where ESAs aren’t allowed. You’ll be able to find more details about such restrictions on your university’s official site.
You have to submit a written request and show your ESA letter to the housing provider in order to get these benefits. In most cases, your request will be approved without any problems. However, landlords have the right to reject it if:
- Your ESA is aggressive towards other animals and people or is a threat to other tenants.
- Accommodating your ESA requires them to significantly alter the nature or structure of their business/property.
- Your ESA poses an undue financial burden on the landlord.
These are very unlikely scenarios, and it can be difficult for landlords to prove them. As long as you have an ESA letter and your pet is well-behaved, you won’t have any problems at all.
ESAs may not require any training, but it’s still important that you teach them to behave around other people and animals. If they cause any trouble for other tenants, your animal may be removed, and you could even be evicted. Teach your ESA some basic commands, if possible, and ensure that they listen to you.
2. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The ADA allows service animals to go wherever they want with their handlers. Public schools, universities, public accommodations, and commercial facilities are all legally required to allow service animals wherever people are allowed to go.
According to the North Dakota Protection and Agency, public accommodations include “restaurants, theaters, hotels, grocery stores, hospitals and medical offices, department stores, malls, health clubs, parks, zoos, sporting facilities and all public transportation systems such as airports, car rentals, trains/metro systems, buses/shuttles, and demand-response transportation services, such as taxis, limos and rideshare.”
Restaurants and cafes can’t deny service animals entry because of reasons like allergies and fear of dogs in North Dakota. It is their responsibility to make sure that there is space for both people with service animals and people with allergies to dogs without one of them making the other feel uncomfortable.
Service animals must always be under the control of their owner through the use of a leash, harness, or their owner’s voice. The animal could be removed from the premises if it disturbs other animals or people and the owner fails to keep them under control.
People with service animals are also allowed to take their dogs to their workplaces, and employers must provide reasonable accommodations.
No one can ask people with service animals to show proof that their animals have been properly trained. In North Dakota, they can only ask two questions from people who have service animals:
- Is the animal required because of a disability?
- What task or work is the animal trained to perform for you?
While ESAs aren’t included in the ADA, you may still be able to take them to your workplace. Many offices today are pet-friendly places. However, you should talk to your employer about it first to see if they’re okay with it.
You may not be allowed to take your ESA to work if there are employees who are allergic to your pet or if your pet poses a threat to other people (or animals).
3. Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA)
The ACAA gives service animals the right to fly with their handlers in the cabin of a plane. It was originally applicable to ESAs as well, but was modified in 2020 to exclude them. If you have a service animal, you can easily take it with you on a plane, as airlines have to provide you with reasonable accommodations.
If you have an ESA, then you’ll have to call the airline you’re flying with first to see if they allow ESAs. Most will be okay with it but will charge you an extra fee, and they will likely treat your emotional support animal as a pet. Make sure you check the official site of the airline you’re flying with to read about their policies before booking a ticket.
Taking Care of Your ESA
Just like any other pet, an ESA thrives on love, attention, and routine care. ESAs help you feel better by cuddling with you. They can sense your negative emotions and take care of you by being there for you.
However, it’s equally important that you take good care of them. You have to take them for walks, if applicable, and regularly play with them. By taking care of your ESA, you develop a routine, which can help you feel better.
Not taking proper care of your ESA can result in your ESA letter being revoked. Take your ESA to the vet on a regular basis, and make sure you provide them with adequate care throughout the day.
Plus, spending a lot of time with your emotional support animal will strengthen the bond between you two. This will result in a companionship that will contribute positively to both of your lives.
Get an ESA in North Dakota
Getting an ESA in North Dakota is an easy process. All you have to do is talk to a licensed mental health professional in the state and let them know that you benefit from the companionship of your pet. They’ll give you an emotional support animal letter, which you can show to housing providers as needed.
Under the FHA, housing providers are required to provide ESA owners reasonable accommodations as long as they can show an ESA letter. Even if an apartment has a no-pet policy, your ESA can live with you. You won’t have to pay any pet deposit or cleaning fee. You’ll just have to make sure that your pet doesn’t disturb other animals or tenants.
ESAs aren’t specially trained to help people feel better, but it’s still important that you teach your pet basic commands so you can easily control them around other people and animals. If they misbehave, housing providers have the right to have you evicted, so make sure your ESA is on its best behavior!