Service animals and ESAs: Do you know the difference?

How do you distinguish emotional support animals from service animals?

What are the laws surrounding them? Do they need to be registered? And where are they really allowed?

Keep reading to find out.

The ADA and service animals

While service animals and ESAs both help their owners, they have different parameters and protections.

Most notably — ESAs, unlike service animals, are not protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ADA recognizes as a service dog any breed and size of dog that is trained to perform a task directly related to a person's disability, according to the U.S. Department of Justics Civil Rights Division.

These tasks include things like guiding people who are blind, alerting a person who is having a seizure, calming someone with PTSD or reminding someone to take prescription medications.

Miniature horses are also recognized as service animals by the ADA.

What is an emotional support animal

ESAs, however, can be much broader in species so long as they are domesticated.

While emotional support animals aren't just limited to dogs, they also aren't protected by the ADA, and they do need to be prescribed by a licensed mental health professional.

ESAs differ from service animals in their lack of specific training that directly aids someone with a certain disability.

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Where can I bring my service dog in New Jersey?

The ADA offers protection for people with disabilities to bring their service dog to places where animals are typically permitted.

This includes restaurants, schools, hotels, hospitals and stores. This protection is also extended to housing like university, public and emergency housing programs or shelters.

While the ADA protects the rights of people with service dogs, there are a select few occasions where they may be asked to remove the dog from the premise. For example, if the dog is not housebroken or if it is out of control and the handler does not take action.

In either of these circumstances the establishment must still offer the person with the disability to use services or obtain goods without the dog.

Where can I bring my ESA in New Jersey?

Because ESAs aren't protected by the ADA, they are more limited in where they are permitted to be and can be turned away from public spaces that do not allow pets.

For example, an emotional support alligator named Wally was recently denied entry to Citizens Bank Park to watch the Phillies game with his owner.

Under Title 14 of the Air Carrier Access Act, ESAs aren't considered service animals for air travel. This means that passengers do have to pay an extra fee at the discretion of the airline to fly with their ESA and may have to fly them in cargo or crated under their seat.

ESAs are, however, supported through the federal Fair Housing Act. This means that even in accommodations that typically prohibit pets, landlords can't deny tenants with documented ESAs, according to U.S. Service Animals.org.

Animals with proper licensing can be denied if they are disruptive or pose a risk to other residents.

Do service dogs have to be registered?

No. There is no national registry requirement for service dogs.

In fact, vests and other identification tools are not mandatory for service dogs, and businesses are only able to ask certain questions under the ADA.

Staff members can only ask if the dog is a service animal required because of disability and what task the dog has been trained to perform. They can't inquire about the person's disability, request paperwork or ask for a demonstration of the service dog's training.

Oh ... and never pet or touch a service dog without first asking the handler. The dogs are working and should not be distracted.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Service and emotional support animals in New Jersey