Registering your cat as an emotional support animal (ESA) grants you and your furry companion certain rights under the Fair Housing Act. For example, you won’t be subject to pet restrictions or deposits and fees associated with living with your cat in a rental property if you have the proper documentation that proves you have an emotional support animal.
If you have a cat or are planning to adopt one as your ESA, read on to learn the entire process of registering a cat as an emotional support animal.
What Is an Emotional Support Animal?
An emotional support animal is an assistance animal that provides comfort to their handler with a psychiatric disability through companionship. These animals can be any pet the individual is allowed to have, with cats and dogs being the most common due to their popularity and ease of caring.
However, this isn’t to say that anyone with a psychiatric disability, such as anxiety or depression, can have their pets registered as an emotional support animal automatically. For a cat, or any other pet for that matter, to become an emotional support animal, the owner must get an ESA letter from a licensed mental health professional.
How Is an ESA Different From a Service Animal?
While similar, emotional support animals and service animals aren’t the same. Any pet an individual is allowed to keep can be an emotional support animal, whereas only dogs (and miniature horses with some exceptions) trained to assist an individual with a disability can become a service animal.
Emotional support animals and service animals differ in how they assist their handlers. Emotional support animals simply exist and provide comfort through companionship, while service animals perform tasks to assist their handler in their day-to-day lives.
Additionally, emotional support animal owners require an ESA letter from a licensed mental health professional. Service animals, on the other hand, only need to receive proper training to assist their handler with a disability.
Due to the differences in how they assist their handlers, service animals have broader public access rights. They can enter any public space the handler is allowed, such as restaurants, shops, and malls.
Emotional support animals don’t have the same public access rights as people with disabilities, as they aren’t protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act. However, the Fair Housing Act protects ESAs. It ensures that individuals with an ESA aren’t discriminated against when renting a property.
How Do You Register a Cat as an ESA?
If you have a cat or plan to adopt one to have them registered as your emotional support animal, you must first speak to a licensed mental health professional and obtain an ESA letter. You can do this by speaking to a medical professional who can issue this document or getting an ESA letter online.
Either way, an ESA letter is essentially a prescription that states you will benefit from having an emotional support animal. It should include your diagnosis, the type of emotional support animal you have, and the mental health professional’s license number and practice address.
Once you obtain your ESA letter, you don’t need to take any further action, such as registering your emotional support cat with specific ESA registry databases. You can simply use your ESA letter when needed, such as providing a copy to your landlord to inform them that you’re living with your emotional support animal.
However, ESA registration can have its benefits. ESA registries like USServiceAnimals provide legal assistance in addition to the ID card and ESA kit they send to emotional support animals. When troubled by the complicated ESA laws, having access to dedicated legal support to solve your issue can make registration worth it.
Understanding Registration for Emotional Support Animals
Registering a cat as an emotional support animal only requires obtaining an ESA letter from a licensed mental health professional. All you need is this document written by a mental health professional to prove the status of your emotional support animal when needed.
Although ESA registries can have their benefits, there’s no legal requirement that you must register your ESA or receive specific certifications. As long as your ESA letter is written by a licensed mental health worker, you will legally have your cat as your emotional support animal.