mental illness and emotional disability are clinical conditions that could have an effect on over 61.five million americans this year.

1. Service Dogs for Your Help
Mental illness and emotional disability are medical conditions that may affect over 61.5 million
Americans this year. Do you have an animal that can alleviate the symptoms when the malady
strikes? Well, some may have, and some have no idea on the ideal animal to curb the threat
Service dogs are typically canines, specifically trained to work and perform simple tasks for
people living with disabilities. While most commonly thought of as leading the blind, service
dogs can perform a variety of other tasks as well. They are trained to work with the deaf, alerting
them to the doorbell, a ringing phone, and smoke alarms. Their other duties can include aiding a
victim of seizures by alerting a family member or nurse, reminding patients to take prescribed
medications at certain times of the day, and even aiding victims of Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder in their recovery. While an animal might stay with a person for a lifetime, they are not
pets. The Americans with Disabilities Act defines service dogs as only dogs and limits their
definition solely for use by a person with a disability. The aforementioned service dog for a
PTSD victim would not qualify as a service animal under the ADA, but could still be classified
as an “assistance animal” or “service animal” under the Fair Housing and Air Carrier Access
Acts respectively.
ADA for service dogs:
There are some proper rules and regulations for the Service dogs. If any person wants to get the
services of service dog the person has to follow these rules from ADA for service dogs. Service
dogs are allowed in all public facilities under the ADA. This includes state and local government
offices, public business and any organization that allows the general public inside. The service
animal could accompany a patient throughout any local city hall by this act, or even throughout a
hospital. There are exclusions to this; wherein the animal is not allowed to accompany their
assigned person, such as an operating room in a hospital where the sterility of the room would be
compromised by the dog’s presence.

2. Societal concerns:
How would an employee of business, that does not allow dogs inside, know what to ask if a
person is attempting to bring a dog into their business? Well, the ADA limits the questions to
two; the first being “Is the dog emotional support animals because of a disability?” If the answer
is yes, the employee would have no right to stop them from bringing their service animal inside.
The second question they would be allowed to ask is “What work/task has the dog been trained
to do?” The staff would not be allowed to ask about the person’s disability, request any proof of
the dog’s role as service animal, request personal medical information from the disabled person
or request any documentation that shows the dog has been trained as a service animal. Finally,
any employee is not allowed to request the dog perform its trained work or task. These seem
fairly straightforward, but the ADA protects the rights of disabled persons by utilizing these two
questions and the restrictions mentioned above.
As allergies to canines are fairly common, the ADA has also addressed this. If a staff member is
allergic to emotional support animals and must continue to work, the business must
accommodate them by allowing them to work in a different room or different part of the facility.
Allergies are no reason to deny a disabled person access to a public building. Secondly, the ADA
addresses fear of dogs as another invalid reason to deny the person and their companion entry.
The only event that can lead to a request for emotional support animals to be removed from the
business premises are if the dog is being unruly, out of control and disruptive, and the handler
does not take effective action to quell this behavior. The second reason is if the dog is not
housebroken, as this can create biological contamination. When staff has a legitimate reason,

3. they may request that the service animal is removed from the premises while still offering to
assist the disabled person to acquire the goods and services they offer.
Source: Servicedogregistration.org