Not a Therapy Animal and Not Quite a Service Animal Either
Emotional support animals aren’t therapy animals, but they aren’t technically considered service animals either. They fall into a category of their own.- Service animals, which may lead the blind or be trained to assist with other medical concerns, like alerting to seizures, are trained in a specific task to help an individual in their daily life.
- Therapy animals usually visit groups of people in hospitals, nursing homes or college campuses to relieve stress and to serve as a supplemental depression treatment. They are only trained to have basic manners; the main requirement is unswerving friendliness and gentleness.
- Emotional support animals, on the other hand, aren’t trained for a specific task like service animals. Instead, they provide therapeutic support to an individual. The emotional support animal’s mere presence provides psychological relief to his or her owner.
