Recently, a new law has been passed in California for emotional support animals. This law is passed to stop those people who are representing their Emotional support animal as service animals to get the benefits of the privileges provided to service animals. Before talking about this law in detail, you should get to know what service animals are and how they are different from emotional support animals. In this article, we will discuss these topics in detail.
What makes Service Animals different from Emotional Support Animals?
An emotional support animal can help those people who are facing any kind of mental or emotional health issues with companionship. Both service animals and emotional support animals provide emotional support to their owners but there are some differences between them. Service animals can perform some tasks to help their owners who may have physical or mental disabilities while emotional support animals can act as a companion for those who are going through any kind of mental health issues.
Emotional Support Animals do not need any kind of special training. On the other hand, special training is provided to service animals so that they can assist their owners.
A person with a service animal needs him almost every time as a service animal assists them in daily tasks. Therefore, there are more privileges to service animals as compared to emotional support animals. A service animal can go anywhere with its owner.
California Law On Emotional Support Animals
As you have learned, service animals have more privileges as compared to ESAs. To get the benefit of these privileges, some ESA Owners represent their ESA as Service Animals. This helps them get the freedom of going out with ESA anywhere.
The California Government observed this problem and decided to stop this as soon as possible. So they passed ESA Laws California so that this issue can be solved. This law has nothing to do with the cancellation of previous ESA Laws. So ESA owners don’t worry about it. The new ESA law is divided into three sections. Each section contains different guidelines. Let’s discuss this in detail:
The First Section Guidelines
These guidelines apply to the ESA Suppliers. If any person provides ESA letter to the person who need an ESA for mental health treatment, that provider should add this note:
- The dog hasn’t went through any training and so unfit to serve as a service, guide, or signal dog.
- This dog cannot get the advantages that are provided to service dogs. This dog can serve as ESA only.
- It is against the law to purposefully represent or identify yourself as a guide, signal, service dog owner, or trainer. These guidelines are mandatory to be followed by ESA Suppliers.
Second Section Guidelines include
The people or organizations that issue emotional support animal certifications, IDs, tags, vests, leashes, or harnesses also include a note that the dog is only recognized as an emotional support animal and not as a guide, signal, or service dog. Additionally, the notice must include all of the specific information listed in the Law’s first section.
Note: Anyone who violates the aforementioned provisions by misrepresenting emotional support dogs as guide, signal, or service dog or tries to fraudulently claim that they are entitled to the protections afforded to such animals by California dog laws will face sanctions.
If someone breaks these laws, he/she may be subjected to prison in county jail for at least six months or have to more panilities like:
For first-time violators: $500
And for the second time: $1000
For the third time: $2500
Third Section Guidelines
These guidelines are for those mental healthcare practitioners who sign or write the emotional support animal letter.
- The new Law makes it crystal clear that a health practitioner can only provide an ESA document if they are LHMP ( Licensed Health Mental Professional). By identifying the type of license, it is made apparent that the healthcare provider must possess a legitimate and current license.
- The jurisdiction where the ESA document is supplied recognizes the scope under the health professional’s license. It should therefore be clear from the license that it belongs to the state for which the health professional presents the ESA document.
- At least 30 days must pass after the patient and the health care practitioner begin working together before the ESA document is given.
- Before approving the person as fit for ESA documents, the healthcare provider performs a thorough and honest review.
The primary modification, in this case, is that before signing and awarding an ESA letter to a patient, healthcare professionals must establish a relationship with them for at least 30 days.
To conclude, I want to say this law was extremely required as the number of people misrepresenting their ESA as service animals are increasing day by day. This law will help to solve this issue to some extent and let service animal owners enjoy their privileges.
