Emotional Support Animal Requests Continue to Rise

Tim Burke, Manley Burke, tburke@manleyburke.com

The July 2016 ABA Journal, the monthly publication of the American Bar Association, included a two-page article “Who Let the Dogs, Cats and Ponies In?  Colleges See an Uptake in Requests for Emotional Support Animals on Campus.”

The author, Judy Sutton Taylor, began the article “It’s raining cats and dogs (and miniature ponies, Guinea pigs and other creatures) at college campuses across the country, and housing administrators are grappling with the legal ins and outs of when and how these animals should be accommodated.”

Citing to several cases, the most recent of which involved Kent State, which Fraternal Law reported on in its January 2016 issue, the author quotes Jane Jarrow, who is identified as an educational disabilities consultant who warned against “practitioners who charge small fees for approval letters easily downloaded from the Internet,” which some use to attempt to justify allowing support animals in university housing.

No doubt, this is an area that is going to present some challenges for chapter houses that will have to be addressed very carefully.