According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, a Service Animal is “…any animal that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including, but not limited to, guiding individuals with impaired vision, alerting individuals with impaired hearing to sounds, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets.”

 “The work or task an animal has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Animals whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.”

 There’s no denying that a loyal canine friend and other pets can provide lots of emotional support, but no matter how much comfort they provide, unless they are trained specifically to help with a validly diagnosed disability, they are not service animals.