Purr-fessional Friends
Students discuss life on campus with animals they cannot live without.
Story by Kirsten Abbey | Design by Anna Schneider
Photos by Pearl Spurlock
Plenty of people would love the opportunity to bring their pets with them wherever they go, but there is a difference between wanting an animal and needing an animal during day-to-day experiences. Service animals exist to help and accommodate people who have physical and mental disabilities as well as support mental wellbeing.
When renting an apartment or living in a university residence hall, pets are often prohibited; however, rental agencies and university management cannot deny tenants the presence of a service or emotional support animal.
Taylor Mondragon, an Ohio University alumna, worked for an Ohio University rental company as an undergraduate. She described the responsibilities as equivalent to that of a landlord. “I toured the apartments, I started leases, I signed leases with people,” Mondragon says. “I paid bills. I collected rent.”
The company Mondragon worked for did not allow pets but could not deny emotional support animals (ESA). “Ohio State law does not recognize emotional support animals or service animals as pets, so we could not deny them, and we could not charge a fee because it's a pet fee, and if they are registered, they are not considered a pet,” Mondragon says.
The law that Mondragon is referencing is the Fair Housing Act (FHA), which penalizes discrimination in estate transactions. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “The Fair Housing Act protects people from discrimination when they are renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, or engaging in other housing-related activities.” The discrimination that FHA protects against includes “race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status and disability.”
The section of the FHA specifies disability acts as the safeguard for both service animals and emotional support animals, unlike the American Disability Act (ADA). The U.S. Service Animal registration page outlines that the ADA only recognizes service animals and guarantees their accommodation, excluding emotional support animals.
In the case of permissible housing, the only certification required for service or support animals is a letter from a licensed physician indicating the necessity of the animal. The actual distinction between an ESA and a service animal is based on training and the needs of their owners.
Akira Jakkson with his dog, Loki.
Akira Jakkson, a senior at OU studying integrated media production, has a psychiatric service dog, an 11-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, Loki. Jakkson had Loki trained to perform tasks that alleviate the symptoms caused by diagnosed major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety and PTSD.
Jakkson is prone to prolonged moments of dissociation, which Loki is trained to handle. “He provides me with DPP– deep pressure therapy,” Jakkson says. “So, kind of pushing on my chest. He sits on my chest [and] my lap. He does other grounding techniques like lick my face, lick my hands and stuff to ground me when I'm having episodes.”
The specific techniques and training employed by Loki make him necessary for Jakkson’s everyday life, not just within his home. Therefore, Jakkson would not consider Loki an emotional support animal. “I don't really feel like using the loose term emotional service animal really applies because I literally can't be without him,” Jakkson says. “It's not a choice.”
On the other end of the spectrum, emotional support animals lack definitive training, but they provide a different form of support for their human counterparts. Lydia Caggiano, a 21-year-old OU student studying exercise physiology, has an ESA in the form of her cat, Dexter.
Caggiano had Dexter registered by her doctor to help with anxiety and depression. “Honestly, I feel like part of it is just having something to take care of [that] makes me feel worthwhile,” Caggiano says. “Kind of like if I'm not alive, he really can't be alive … I feel like we can still communicate even though I'm a human [and] he is a cat. It feels like I have a friendship, some kind of bond.”
The significant impact that service animals and emotional support animals have on their handlers’ lives emphasizes the imperativeness of accommodation. Finding a rental home in Athens can already be a strenuous process, even without incorporating the addition of an essential animal.
Caggiano details a straightforward transition from the OU residence halls to her current apartment. “I did have to go to my doctor, and a doctor had to say, ‘yes, she has issues. She needs an ESA,’” Caggiano says, referring to the initial papers required by the university for Dexter to cohabit her dormitory. Her rental agency then accepted those same papers without issue. However, while touring off-campus housing, the no-pets policies were consistent. “I feel like a lot of apartments don’t allow animals,” Caggiano says. “That was something we kept running into.”
Jakkson’s experience with various rental agencies in Athens was less than seamless. He described encounters with harsh landlords. “It was kind of like 50/50 whether the landlord would not even bat an eye at the fact that I had a dog and not even ask questions. And then there were the others who were like, ‘we don't accept animals at all,’” Jakkson says.
One particular housing manager made it very evident to Jakkson that he did not want them as tenants. “He was very thrown off by me having Loki with me when we were doing the tour and kind of staring at him,” Jakkson says. “Additionally, he was pretty vocally like, ‘usually we rent out to older families and couples and people with established incomes.’ Just say you don't want to rent to a young person.”
This suspicion from landlords seems to derive from the vagueness of the certification. “I think sometimes some of the tenants got them registered to have them,” Mondragon says, though she reported no problems with any of the animals. “I never heard of any issues with people hearing the animals or interacting with the animals in any negative way.”
The certification process’s obscurity is the source of an ongoing issue for Jakkson. “I'm constantly in scenarios where people are invalidating my need for having Loki with me places, and it's incredibly frustrating because, in the U.S., there is no official branch of the government or any agency that you go to to get certification,” Jakkson says. “It's just kind of like my doctor says I need it. I can tell you he's been through training, but there's not really more certification than that, mainly in regards to psychiatric animals.”
Lydia Caggiano with her cat, Dexter.
While Jakkson eventually found a home with a landlord who is supportive of Loki, his struggle with the rental industry in Athens highlights the underlying issue of invisible disabilities being disregarded.
“I can't really stress enough the difference in reception to someone having a service animal between physical and very visible disabilities versus invisible disabilities,” Jakkson says. “It’s a whole issue of getting accommodations and people not understanding that you can have a disability and not have it be right in your face.”
The rental companies in Athens appear to generally adhere to FHA, but the occasional hurdles that tenants must bypass in order to acquire their legally ensured right to a service animal or an ESA exemplifies the ignorance surrounding disabilities.
For handlers and owners, these animals are more than just a pet. “I feel like it’s almost like having a friend,” Caggiano says. “Unconditional love gives you meaning.”