Emotional Support Animals

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What are your thoughts on these - I mean true serious ones - not the ones where people fake it so they can bring their pet in places they should not. My daughter wants one - we have two dogs already, but she is suggesting a cat. The reason being is - she is currently going to college via remotely, but plans to transfer fall of 2023 to live at school. She thought having a cat would make more sense in that situation and be a comfort to her.

I told her to discuss it with a therapist - what are your thoughts on this - do you really think these are helpful? I know many schools if you qualify do allow these (my older daughter had a house mate that had an emotional support cat - although that cat was a bit mean so don't know how it could be of any support).

Any thoughts - and also suggestions on to find one that would really be helpful vs just a pet.

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[+3] - Linkat - 03/23/2022[quote="neptuneblue"] Your daughter wants a cat and you are perfectly ok to bend rules and regulations to make sure she gets what she wants. Be damned the people who actually suffer...

As long as she is responsible enough to care for it properly.

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@Linkat,

I love cats, but what will she do if the cats don't get along? You might be the one raising the cat, and you might be ok with that, but taking a cat to live in an apartment/dorm in another state might be too much for the cat. So many of my neighbors had to raise dogs their children brought home during breaks, they are ok with it and I'm happy for them, but what do you do if it's an unhappy cat with the other animals? You don't want the animals to be unhappy, I understand how loving her request is, but animals need a comfortable and safe place. Good luck with the decision, seriously, good luck.

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@Linkat,

Your daughter wants a cat and you are perfectly ok to bend rules and regulations to make sure she gets what she wants. Be damned the people who actually suffer maladies that are needed to be considered support animals. You know, ones that are certified and trained to to help a human.

So sure, get a ******* cat for your daughter who is spoiled to whine and complain to Mommy that Life is sooo unfair.

Where is the "Life Is Unfair" mentality now?

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@glitterbag,

glitterbag wrote:

I love cats, but what will she do if the cats don't get along? You might be the one raising the cat, and you might be ok with that, but taking a cat to live in an apartment/dorm in another state might be too much for the cat. So many of my neighbors had to raise dogs their children brought home during breaks, they are ok with it and I'm happy for them, but what do you do if it's an unhappy cat with the other animals? You don't want the animals to be unhappy, I understand how loving her request is, but animals need a comfortable and safe place. Good luck with the decision, seriously, good luck.

I'd be fine with raising the cat. I have had cats in the past and there would be just one cat. Most schools do not allow pets except in the case you have a legitimate reason with documentation. My daughter already has been approved with a ASA or whatever it is where they need to make reasonable accommodations. We talked about things like if she had to travel for basketball, etc.

I am just more trying to think of things like you mention as I always take the perspective you have a pet for life.we certainly don't want to make a rash decision.

For some background..this next year she is living at home and commuting for a year. The following year she plans to go and live at college...likely within a two hour drive.

We had a little experience with this as my older daughter had a housemate who was approved to have a cat.

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@neptuneblue,

neptuneblue wrote:

Your daughter wants a cat and you are perfectly ok to bend rules and regulations to make sure she gets what she wants. Be damned the people who actually suffer maladies that are needed to be considered support animals. You know, ones that are certified and trained to to help a human.
So sure, get a ******* cat for your daughter who is spoiled to whine and complain to Mommy that Life is sooo unfair.
Where is the "Life Is Unfair" mentality now?

What crawled up your butt?

How do you know she would not legitimately need one? You are making a lot of assumptions.

I am not going to go into the details but she just went through a very traumatic event which included a stay in intensive care. She has gotten a disability approval and has moved back home to finish her school year remotely. If you have ever been through this it us not easy to get. It not only includes a lengthy application process with a small book for a doctor to fill out with specifics that is reviewed by a medical person at the school who also interviews the student involved and anyone else.

I also told her she would need to see if her therapist thought this would be helpful for her. I do not plan on getting one for her because she whined but because it may be helpful for her mental health. The schools are on onto kids trying to have pets instead of those that may really be helped by this so it us a lengthy process to ensure they aren't doing it to bend the rules.

We are discussing this now to make a well informed decision that this would be beneficial for all including the cat, not to give in to someone whining. Same as I discussed in the thread that must have you all riled up ..you discuss this with your child ... You don't give into whining you discuss as a family and work out what seems a good solution.

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@Linkat,

You are planning to get her a cat -- A YEAR AND A HALF AWAY. To me, that says she doesn't NEED one, she WANTS one, a pet, not a support animal.

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@neptuneblue,

neptuneblue wrote:

You are planning to get her a cat -- A YEAR AND A HALF AWAY. To me, that says she doesn't NEED one, she WANTS one, a pet, not a support animal.

Your opinion...this would be for emotional support which may be helpful for her now and especially when she moves out so she isn't alone. We have pets already..but I plan on getting a therapists opinion as to whether it would be helpful for her mental state. The idea is if we all determine this is good for therapeutic reasons. We would get the cat now or as soon as we found an appropriate one.

I am reaching out here just to see thoughts and others experience... Maybe also when we get to that stage how best to find the right support cat...things to look for in their personality.

I tried to do a Google search and all I found was waste to get a pet certified for this so I can understand wht people are skeptical about this and about people trying to break the rules so they can bring their pet where ever they want.

But since I had difficulty finding good information I thought I'd reach out here to see if anyone honestly had experience or real thoughts on this. I am not trying to break rules but honestly looking to see if this is helpful and what to look for.

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Hi Linkat: Here in Canada, all pets who are to be 'support pets' have to go through a registered program. I don't think a current cat will necessarily be allowed to be registered... there is a program, after all. They may be asked to choose between already-registered pets.

Also, all people who need a support pet must be approved by at least one doctor.

Once that's done, the pet can go with the person on the bus, train, to school, etc., but they have to wear a jacket and leash at all times. I have never seen a support cat, but it's possible they exist. How well can one train a cat, after all? lol

It's akin to getting a disability card for parking. All regulated and registered.

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Taking a pet to college can be a challenge on top of what freshmen already experience and might limit where she can stay since a fair portion of the population (including my kids and me) is allergic to cats.

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@Mame,

Yeah this is a little different than a service animal which sounds more like you descibe.

There has been much research where it was found that animals can help lessen stress, anxiety depression and some therapists use animals to help ease this in their sessions. One college we visited brought in dogs weekly to help ease this.

The issue is many people have been abusing this and bring all sorts of pets where they shouldn't when they don't have any mental or emotional health issues. The certification is much less because they don't need to be trained as a service animal. They are there to ease depression anxiety so like in the case of college say all roommates leave that weekend and you get high anxiety as a result or you have a huge test just having the animal comforts you so you can get through it ...n most people can handle that sort of thing but some with extreme anxiety completely shut down and panic and cannot function.

Any way for thus sort of certification because so many people abused it ...it is not free reign to bring your animal on planes and restaurants but it does allow for housing in most cases. You still need to follow certain rules and you are responsible for any damage from the animal.

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@Linkat,

Well, she's 1.5 years away from that, right? I'd wait until closer to then and ask the college what their policies are.

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@engineer,

engineer wrote:

Taking a pet to college can be a challenge on top of what freshmen already experience and might limit where she can stay since a fair portion of the population (including my kids and me) is allergic to cats.

Yeah I thought of that as well..obviously you cannot have a roommate that is allergic....what I have seen is often times they are given a single room to avoid that.

In my other daughters situation the girl had a single room within a house...all the housemates knew before she had the cat and no issue with it. So yeah she would need understanding roommates...also she would be entering her junior year at that point so she would be a little older. And typically they have more housing options.

But that is something I would also definitely speak with her on. The goid thing for schools we have options since we are more than a year out...but it is important to understand all the issues before hand.

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@Mame,

Mame wrote:

Well, she's 1.5 years away from that, right? I'd wait until closer to then and ask the college what their policies are.

Yeah we are just vetting it out to try to get a feel for it.

1) would it really be helpful for her
2) like you said what are the different policies at each school

We probably would favor one that is more helpful and open to this even if we don't get one...as it would follow they probably have more resources and are more open with helping with these issues.

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@Linkat,

Always better to be informed and prepared!

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