When pigs fly: emotional support animals, service dogs and the politics of legitimacy across species boundaries.

This paper probes the distinction between the so-called emotional support animals (ESAs), a term that is specific to the USA and that has recently been the subject of significant media attention, and service animals. The attention devoted to ESAs has largely taken on the form of jokes and critical comments related to the absurdity of the 'political correctness' that makes it possible for pigs to fly in the passenger cabin of airplanes and llamas to accompany their owners on trips to the supermarket. Much criticism is meted out, also from within the disability community, against animal guardians who try to 'pass their animals off' as service dogs and ESAs, with a call for the establishment of clear-cut criteria for the definition of ESAs and service animals. The paper's methodology is an analysis of the media accounts of legitimate and illegitimate service animals; an analysis that reveals how the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate is constructed through the building blocks of these stories. ESAs are something of a limit case that points to the cultural paradoxes that govern Americans' relationships with companion animals and with concepts of disability. The paper also argues that the insistence on establishing firm boundaries between 'legitimate' service animals and ESAs actually fosters a politics of suspicion, which can easily slip into suspicion directed at the human handlers of the animals.

Animals on VA property. Final rule.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) amends its regulation concerning the presence of animals on VA property. This final rule expands the current VA regulation to authorize the presence of service animals consistent with applicable Federal law when these animals accompany individuals with disabilities seeking admittance to property owned or operated by VA.

State Policies on Service Dogs for Military Veterans.

U.S. service members returning home from combat often face physical, mental and emotional challenges. Providing service dogs to these veterans is one method being used successfully to help address the difficulties they face. Under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service animal is defined as "any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual or other mental disability." The work the dog undertakes must be directly related to the person's disability. Examples include guiding people who are blind, pulling a wheelchair, alerting a person with hearing loss, protecting a person having a seizure, and calming someone with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack or psychiatric episode.

Service dogs. Final rule.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) amends its regulations concerning veterans in need of service dogs. Under this final rule, VA will provide to veterans with visual, hearing, or mobility impairments benefits to support the use of a service dog as part of the management of such impairments. The benefits include assistance with veterinary care, travel benefits associated with obtaining and training a dog, and the provision, maintenance, and replacement of hardware required for the dog to perform the tasks necessary to assist such veterans.