By JEANETTE WOLFBERG
HUDSON–Procedures concerning emotional support animals and service animals are currently topics of interest for the Columbia County government. The county Department of Human Services (DHS) is seeking authorization from the Board of Supervisors to write letters verifying that a specific pet is an emotional support animal for a specific person and must therefore be allowed to reside with that person. Meanwhile, the board adopted a policy for accommodating service animals in the workplace, at its April 10 meeting.
An emotional support animal’s “primary” purpose is “to provide…emotional comfort to the handler,” according to Project Canine. In contrast, a service animal (like a seeing eye dog for the blind) “helps the handler…with tasks the handler cannot perform, due to a specific disability,” and a therapy animal is “trained to provide comfort to many others” and “must wear…identifying gear.”
DHS Director Dan Almasi has presented the case for his department certifying emotional support animals at the board’s Health and Human Services Committee meetings. By law, emotional support animals and service animals “must be allowed to live with the owner,” no matter what the residence’s default policy toward dogs and other pets. Issues to resolve include the needs of individuals, the needs of landlords, and liability.
Mr. Almasi said DHS’s current practice is not to provide letters of support for someone’s claim that an animal is an emotional support animal, but people come to the department for them. If the DHS did provide such letters for people whom an animal helps, it would help those people. “This is a way we can lend support to someone who is struggling,” he said.
At a committee meeting, Supervisor Brenda Adams (Canaan) asked why those people do not get such letters from medical providers who already have permission to write them. Mr. Almasi replied that some people see the DHS more frequently than their medical provider.
Supervisor Robert Lagonia (Austerlitz), who is a landlord for several buildings, said “Dogs that go around with handicapped people are well trained. I’ve met the dogs. But some people obtain vets and proofs fraudulently and without certification. This is opening a can of worms.”
Mr. Almasi said that he is a landlord himself and “we don’t want people with mental health issues to be accused of abusing emotional support animal privileges.”
Some supervisors asked if an animal for whom the county had written a letter of support later causes trouble, would the county be liable?
Next steps, Mr. Almasi told The Columbia Paper on April 8 and April 16, include for him to discuss this matter with a county attorney.
Service animals can go even more places than emotional support animals. By law, they must be allowed in not only to live with their handlers but also to accompany their handlers in stores, restaurants, libraries, airplanes, and workplaces.
The policy that the county adopted on April 10 outlines a procedure for “employees, contractors, and visitors” bringing service animals into county “workplaces and spaces.”
To initiate this procedure, an employee must write to the county Human Resources Department. A visitor can make the request to the pertinent department head, who will notify Human Resources. After receiving the request, Human Resources is to review details with the one who made it, outline a plan for “managing…questions and concerns,” and inform people working in the building that a service animal is coming. The Facilities Department is to arrange relevant cleaning, post signs alerting people to the animal’s presence, and designate a “service animal relief area.” In return, the employee is to “ensure” the animal meets public health requirements, behaves acceptably, relieves itself only in appropriate areas, and is always “attended.” A service animal “may be removed from county properties” for disruptive misbehavior or “failure of the handler to comply with” the stated expectations.
But the policy states: “Columbia County recognizes the importance of service animals… in providing safety and independence for individuals with disabilities [and] facilitating their participation and access to employment, programs, and activities.” Therefore, the county “is committed to allowing individuals with disabilities the use of service animals in the workplace.”
