Can I Have More Than One Emotional Support Animal

Many people researching Emotional Back up Fauna (ESA) messages on Pettable ask if they tin can have more than ane emotional support animal and exactly how many ESAs they tin can have. We turned to one of our highly experienced mental health experts to help you understand the rules and requirements for having more than i ESA. In this article, we share everything a person with a disability needs to know most having multiple ESAs, what to practice to get your domestic dog, true cat, or other pets certified, and how to obtain an ESA letter of the alphabet.

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How Many ESAs Tin Yous Have?

You can have as many ESAs as you need. There are no rules or guidelines saying y'all tin can but accept a sure number of emotional back up animals. Equally long as the emotional back up animals do not violate state or local laws, your request is reasonable, and both yous and your licensed mental wellness professional hold your ESAs provide y'all necessary mental or emotional back up, you lot tin can have ane, two, or as many Emotional Back up Animals equally you demand. But, y'all need to follow government ESA rules and guidelines to make sure yous can go along your ESA companion with yous at home and when yous travel.

We base our ESA guidance on the iv virtually administrative sources:

The Federal Americans With Disabilities Air-conditioningt (ADA)
Dept. of Housing and Urban Evolution (HUD) Fair Housing Act rules
The Air Carrier Access Act
Advice from Licensed Mental Health Professionals

Each of these sources plays a function in helping yous effigy out how many emotional support animals you tin can take, and nosotros'll swoop into what each 1 tells us.

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What Does Federal Police force Say About Multiple ESAs?

Federal laws from the ADA and FHA have been put in place that protect emotional support animals – including situations in which an individual may require multiple ESAs. These laws acknowledge the fact that sometimes individuals demand dissimilar aid animals for unlike purposes. In addition, a person may need multiple assistance animals to serve the same purpose – simply each animal may be equally essential to that person'due south coping with and handling for their disabilities.

The ADA Recognizes That People May Need More One Emotional Back up Animal

Federal law explicitly recognizes that individuals may require more than just one emotional support fauna. For example, if one of your pets helps yous with anxiety and another pet helps you stay agile (which benefits depressive symptoms), both emotional support animals are deemed necessary to your mental health.

Here is a direct quote from the Federal ADA police force:

Some people with disabilities may apply more than i service animal [or emotional support animal] to perform dissimilar tasks. For example, a person who has a visual inability and a seizure disorder may utilise one service animal [or emotional back up animal] to assist with fashion-finding and another [emotional back up animal] that is trained as a seizure alert dog. Other people may need 2 service animals [or multiple emotional support animals] for the same task, such as a person who needs two dogs to assistance him or her with stability when walking. - ADA

The ADA States That Your Emotional Support Animals or Service Animals Can Be Used To Help With The Same Disability

The ADA also states that your emotional back up animal does not need to support you in a different mode than your other emotional back up animal. Specifically, if both your dogs aid you with depression, and so the ADA recognizes that both may play a crucial role in supporting you lot in your depressive symptoms. The ADA explicitly states:

Other people may need two service animals for the same task, such as a person who needs two dogs to assist him or her with stability when walking. - ADA

The ADA Says Your Request Must Be Possible To Accommodate

The ADA does place some limits around the Federal rules for multiple support animals. For example, suppose your request to enter a private concern with multiple support animals tin can't be reasonably accommodated. In that case, the private business may have the right to deny your request to bring in more than 1 of your support animals. This would exist like if you lot bring two Great Danes to a tiny eatery and both your dogs aren't able to fit under the table, the staff may request that one of the dogs remain outside. Hither is what the ADA specifically says:

If both dogs can be accommodated, both should be allowed in. In some circumstances, withal, it may not be possible to conform more than one service animal. For example, in a crowded small eatery, only i dog may be able to fit under the tabular array. The only other place for the 2d dog would be in the alley, which would block the space between tables. In this case, staff may asking that one of the dogs exist left exterior - ADA

What Does The Department of Housing Say About Multiple ESAs?

The Section of Housing and the Fair Housing Act's guidance for landlords and people who want to bring emotional support animals into their housing circuitous is relatively straightforward.

The Fair Housing Act and HUD recognize that individuals may need multiple emotional support animals and simply land that your request for reasonable accommodation must exist, well, reasonable.

Meaning, if you live in a tiny New York apartment, having a horse alive with you (not sure that would exist enjoyable in the get-go identify) is near definitely not a reasonable request.

However, if you have two or 3 dogs that serve as your emotional back up animals, plus they're well behaved, and you're not stuffing them into a tiny apartment, that would likely fall under reasonable accommodation. In that case, you'd exist able to move in with them provided you have proper ESA Alphabetic character documentation to share with the landlord.

What Do Mental Health Professionals Say About Multiple Emotional Back up Animals?

ESA Letters crave a live consultation with a licensed mental wellness professional. During this evaluation, the LMHP will look at the purpose that each of your emotional support animals serves in helping manage your mental or emotional symptoms. Specifically, a therapist is looking to understand:

What is your relationship with each emotional support animal?
How does each emotional back up animal help yous to deal with your disability?

For a mental wellness professional person to write you ESA documentation for more than ane emotional support brute, they demand to beginning determine that each emotional support animal does in fact help yous with your disability and that yous tin can speak to how they specifically aid. You'll demand to be able to describe your unique relationship with each emotional support animal.

Most mental wellness clinicians will too ask the context of why y'all demand your ESA letter. They need that data to assist them determine if your request for ESA messages and multiple aid animals falls under the standard of reasonable adaptation.

If your clinician feels your situation does not meet the standard for reasonable accommodation, they will probable not approve a letter for multiple ESAs, even if you lot are able to speak to the specific therapeutic relationship with each one. This would be the case if you were asking for an ESA accommodation for 10 cats in rented housing – this likely wouldn't pass the "reasonableness" exam, and a clinician probable wouldn't be able to sign off on messages for all of them.

So How Many Emotional Back up Animals Can I Take?

Ok, so we've covered a bunch of stuff about laws around assistance animals. How exercise you figure out whether y'all can have more than than one emotional back up beast, and can you get an ESA letter of the alphabet for each one?

Here'due south a checklist you can run through before going through the whole process to feel reasonably confident that you will or won't qualify.

What Kind of Emotional Support Animals Do You Take?

First, what kind of emotional support animal(southward) exercise you accept? Whether you lot tin go an ESA letter for them might depend on how your ESA helps you and where you need them to exist accommodated. Here are some common animals:

Service Dogs
Emotional Support Dogs
Cats
Miniature Horses/Pigs (really!)
Birds
Other Assistance Animals

Whether you are entitled to adaptation for each kind of back up fauna will depend on its size, your living or other situation, and your specific needs. A clinician will need to look at those factors to determine if your asking is probable to be considered reasonable according to the laws and if they tin provide you with an ESA letter.

How Does Your ESA Help You lot?

Next, think about how each of your assist animals helps with a mental or emotional disability. Remember, the mental or emotional disability they help yous with does not need to be different for them to qualify equally an ESA. If you need language for your inability, here is a list of common ones:

Low
Feet
Diverse Kinds of Phobias
Panic Attacks
Personality Disorders
ADHD
Schizophrenia
Bipolar Disorder

What Is Your Housing Situation Like And Does Your Asking Feel Reasonable?

Next, we encourage yous to consider whether your asking is reasonable for housing (as per HUD and the FHA). Beginning, what are your living weather?

Are you lot in an flat?
Is information technology a small apartment?
Will having your ESA (dogs or cats) potentially take a chance dissentious the apartment?

Remember your request for accommodation needs to be reasonable, and if your request feels reasonable, you lot'll be protected past the FHA and protected as a tenant.

How Many Are Y'all Planning To Travel With And Does Your Request Feel Reasonable?

Next, to accept your legal rights protected when y'all travel, we encourage you to think about whether your request is reasonable (as per the ADA). For a clinician to feel comfy writing emotional back up brute letters for someone who wants to bring multiple cats or dogs on an airline, for example, they'll demand to explicate clearly how each supports your mental disability.

Allowing one ESA to travel with you is seen equally reasonable about of the time, then yous'll need convincing reasons to get an emotional support fauna letter for multiple companions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Kind of Animal Can Exist an ESA?

Any fauna can qualify as an emotional support animal every bit long as they meet the criteria divers by either the FHA and HUD and the ADA. If a licensed mental wellness professional determines that your true cat, canis familiaris, or other pet acts equally an ESA, they will provide an emotional support animal letter that will assist protect your rights for housing, travel, and other purposes.

What's the Difference Between a PSD and an ESA?

A Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD) is a Service Animal trained to support a specific individual who is diagnosed with a mental illness. PSDs help by reacting to their owners' emotional cues or in stressful situations. PSDs training includes performing specific tasks to protect, alert, or distract their owners.

An emotional support brute is not required to be trained to serve only a specific individual or perform a specific task. An ESA provides emotional comfort to a person with emotional or mental wellness challenges through physical companionship.

How Much Does It Cost to Have More than 1 ESA or Service Pet?

Many services will tell you lot that you need documentation for each ESA yous accept, but HUD does not require that, nor is it required by the FHA or the ADA. We also consulted with each therapist on our team – they explained that the most important thing when writing an emotional support animal letter of the alphabet is that the clinician needs to understand and explain what they call the "nexus" of your relationship with each ESA you own. That takes more time and work, and most services and therapists charge actress for more than i ESA.

Does Pettable Charge For More Than One ESAs?

At Pettable, we get how disquisitional your ESA is to your mental health, and we sympathize the ESA laws and regulations (HUD, FHA, ADA, ACA, etc.). We too work with each therapist on our team to brand sure we can provide a loftier-quality and affordable service for you and your ESA.

Every bit a upshot, we suit upwardly to two pets per ESA alphabetic character for no additional charge. Yes, that requires our therapist squad to do more in their evaluations, but all of united states of america at Pettable are defended to making our services affordable.

We practice have to accuse per letter of the alphabet when we provide you with documentation for 3 or more ESAs. Our guideline is up to 2 ESAs per official letter of the alphabet.

What Should Tenants Say to the Landlord If They Have Multiple Emotional Support Animals?

The same rules apply if you lot have one ESA or more than 1 ESA. Specifically, your landlord has the correct to request documentation (an emotional support animal letter of the alphabet) in which your therapist certifies your need for an ESA.

They can enquire whether or not yous have a disability and enquire if each of your ESAs helps with your inability. Only, for both housing or travel, land and local laws are articulate: no one can inquire yous to tell them exactly how your ESA helps or what assist they provide. They also can't enquire what disability you have. A person's disability cannot impact whether a landlord provides reasonable accommodations to its tenants.

Suppose the person or organization you are dealing with has additional questions about their obligation to accommodate your ESAs. In that case, the best thing to practise is direct them to the therapist who determined your diagnosis, and they can confirm that your emotional support animal letter documentation is valid and legal.

If needed, Pettable customers also have access to our legal team to assistance explicate and protect their rights nether the ADA, FHA, and other laws.

Is there a limit to how many service animals y'all can accept in an apartment?

No, the Fair Housing Act and the Section of Housing simply say that the request for ESAs must be reasonable. A person should not be penalized for their medical demand for an help beast, regardless of his or her disability.

And then, if you have multiple big animals y'all're trying to cram into a tiny apartment, that will probably be considered unreasonable. On the other manus, if you have smaller animals to fit into a small-scale apartment or a larger flat for several larger animals, that will likely be looked upon as more reasonable. Emotional support animals allowed in apartments can continue to back up their owners unless they crusade health hazards or a directly threat to anyone's safety. Mostly, ESA cats, dogs, and other animals on the smaller side volition exercise well in an apartment.

What does an ESA alphabetic character need to say?

A valid ESA alphabetic character must include your licensed healthcare provider's official letterhead, license number, contact information, and the date the alphabetic character was issued.

The body of the letter must employ specific wording to explain your need for emotional support pets. While it cannot requite specific information about your medical issues, it must state that you take a qualifying condition. The ESA letter also must say that your symptoms are improved by the companionship of your ESA animals. Finally, information technology must include the medical professional person'due south request for reasonable adaptation for your help animals.

If it is an ESA travel letter, it must also state that your ESA is needed to accompany you lot during travel due to your mental or emotional disabilities. It's all-time to have your letter on manus when yous plan to travel or get out with your support pet. Most places do non have to accommodate ESA animals, but some may.

How to make a pet an emotional support animal?

If you have a pet that you feel contributes to your mental wellness, information technology could be worth finding out if y'all tin can authorize them every bit an emotional support animal.

The procedure is actually quite uncomplicated. You must exist evaluated during a live consultation with a licensed healthcare provider who determines that you take a mental health inability. They too need to determine that your pet's companionship helps to reduce some of your symptoms of that disability, making life more livable for you.

Once your licensed mental healthcare provider has determined your eligibility, they tin write you an ESA letter. Once y'all have a valid ESA letter of the alphabet in mitt, your pet volition now be recognized as your emotional support animal.

For more data on how to get an emotional support animal, cheque out this post.

Who can write an emotional support animal letter?

Only a licensed mental health professional can write an ESA letter. This includes

Licensed clinical social workers
Licensed marriage and family unit therapists
Family unit doctor with experience in mental health
Licensional counselors
Licensed professional person mental health counselors
Licensed clinical psychologists

Tin apartments accuse for emotional support animals?

No. The constabulary does not allow for property owners to discriminate against people with disabilities. Because of this, even housing providers that typically charge for pets to be allowed on the bounds cannot charge for your to keep your emotional support pets with you.

Can any dog exist an emotional support dog?

Any size or breed of dog has the potential to become an emotional support dog. Emotional support dogs don't need special training, like service dogs, to help someone with an emotional or mental disability. A service fauna performs tasks for someone while an emotional back up dog offers comfort. Your pet must be well behaved around others, nether your control at all times, and must not pose whatever threat to the health and safety of others. Besides, though non required, it's a practiced idea to get them spayed or neutered to prevent the arrival of an unexpected puppy litter, too every bit whatsoever aggressive behaviors related to mating.

To arrive official, y'all must receive an ESA letter from a licensed healthcare provider certifying that y'all have a mental health condition that is improved by the presence of your pet.

For more than information on how to make your domestic dog an ESA, check out this mail service.

Can you get an emotional back up domestic dog for anxiety?

Of course. If your anxiety is determined to be inhibiting your life, and a dog could help reduce some of your anxiety symptoms, it's definitely worth looking into. Several emotional support animals may crusade unnecessary stress and anxiety to a pet possessor, but a domestic dog could help someone coping with anxiety.

Emotional back up dogs provide companionship to the possessor that can go a long way in helping ease mental wellness conditions, such as anxiety.

For more information on emotional support dogs for anxiety, check out this post.

Do landlords accept to accept emotional support animals?

Yes, equally long as your request for accommodation is within reason, the emotional back up pets pose no threat to others, and you lot accept provided your landlord with a valid ESA letter of the alphabet, they must accommodate your ESAs. Whether a person has one emotional support animal, 2, or more, a landlord must take the animals unless the request is unreasonable. Pet fees for a person'south assist fauna will also be waived, so having additional pets for a medical reason will non create a financial burden in regards to pet fees.

What is an ESA dog?

Because at that place are several types of working dogs, information technology can sometimes be difficult to keep them all straight. A service animal is a pet, usually a dog, that has been specially trained to help a person perform tasks like seeing or hearing. Someone may need a service animal for a variety of reasons. Some dogs are individually trained to help a visually dumb person while others are trained to help someone who may be hard of hearing. A psychiatric service domestic dog also needs training to help individuals struggling with things like schizophrenia, post traumatic stress disorder, or something like.

An ESA does not need to be individually trained to support someone with mental health issues. Therapy dogs are also dissimilar from emotional aid animals. Therapy dogs travel from hospitals to nursing homes and other places to offering comfort and love to residents. An ESA dog helps people cope with various mental illnesses.

Dogs can make wonderful emotional back up animals. An ESA dog, or emotional support canis familiaris, is simply a dog that has been officially certified with an ESA letter to provide comfort and some relief for the owner'due south mental or emotional disability. In other words, an LMHP has determined that the canis familiaris'due south companionship is an essential role of the possessor's treatment and coping with their status.

What If My Letter Does Not Work For Me?

At Pettable, nosotros know how vital our service is to our customers, and we stand behind information technology 100%. We guarantee that the ESA letter yous obtain through Pettable will do everything it is supposed to under the police. If information technology ever doesn't, we will fully refund your purchase.

Source: https://pettable.com/blog/how-many-esas-can-you-have#:~:text=As%20long%20as%20the%20emotional,Support%20Animals%20as%20you%20need.

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