Emotional support animals an animal welfare risk?

[Catherine]

People have been taking their pets everywhere, claiming they are an emotional support animal. People do seem to be getting benefits from having their pet with them. So yes the idea is working from our side of the story.
But what about the animal? These are not trained service animals. Service animals are specially raised and trained to handle many different situations.
The average pet is going to be uncomfortable is many of the situations they encounter.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/j...lfare-risk

Studies are showing that the humans benefit from the situation, but the animals are suffering stress.
Maybe the guy did feel better having his peacock of the plane with him, but it is unlikely the peacock enjoyed the experience.
More study is needed to understand the effects, but clearly some animals are not meant to be emotional support pets. They are not going to be okay with the demands such a role places on them. The whole emotional support pet idea needs to be assessed and defined better. There need to be boundaries and guidelines.
Without them, some pets are going to have stressful unhappy lives.