Emotional Support Animals Legit or BS?

I've recently seen a lot of stuff in the news about emotional support animals, and have also noticed a lot of heated discussions going on online in regards to them. I was just curious where you Steemians stand on this issue?

What's The Controversey

So for anyone who's not aware there's a difference between service animals and emotional support animals. I don't think anyone would ague a blind person shoudln't have a seeing eye dog or someone with seizures shouldn't have an animal which can alert them to the fact they are about to have a seizure.

The debate and controversy seems to evolve around emotional support animals.

So What's The Difference?

Service Animals

So service animals are actually animals which are trained to assist someone with a specific role. It could be guiding a blind person, alerting an epileptic person that they are going to have a seizure or bringing someone their medication during an emergency. These animals are trained to provide a specific task for a person with a need. These animals also go through an immense amount of training and are certified to not only do a task, but also be good and well behaved in public and around people.

Emotional Support Animal

Emotional support animals for some people with severe anxiety or other issues play an important role. The controversy however revolves around how easy it is to get one's dog, cat, snake, or whatever else to be considered an emotional support animal. There's plenty of websites online where for a fee someone can essentially pay for a letter that lets them bring their pet anywhere they want for no other reason than wanting to bring their pet around. Or someone can simply visit their family doctor and ask for a letter, and if they have a good relationship with their physician can probably get the letter.

My Thoughts

So here's my thoughts on the issue. I don't deny the fact that there's people out there who legitimately need an emotional support animal. That said I think they are probably in the minority compared to the many people who use this as a way to bring their dog or cat around with them, who avoid paying to fly their dog, and who avoid having to pay pet fees in hotels and apartments.

I've been reading online a bit about this and it seems people with legitimate needs for service animals and/or emotional support animals also want the requirements tightened as they feel there is widespread abuse and they feel that people who are abusing the system give them a bad name.

There's no certification or training required for an emotional support animal so these dogs are not necessarily good doggy citizens.

Just to play devil's advocate say smoking weed relaxes me. Should I be allowed to smoke weed wherever I go in public because it relaxes me? Some people are relaxed by masturbating or listening to loud rock music, should we let them jerk it while blasting Metalica at a crowded restaurant? While these may seem like ridiculous examples they kind of illustrate how we need to balance the needs of a few vs the needs of many. Also, why is having a dog an acceptable means of relaxing oneself but not smoking a joint?

The debates I've been seeing lately revolve heavily around airplane travel with one side saying "hey I'm allergic where's my rights to be comfortable" and the other side saying "I have anxiety and I need this animal to be comfortable."

I think a lot of this we can link back to arguments about smoking. People say your rights begin at the tip of my nose. I think no matter what way we cut it, either side you take your saying that someone's emotional comfort is more important than someone with allergies physical comfort or you say that someone's physical comfort is more important than someone's emotional comfort.

It's Not Black And White

Here's my solution to this or my thoughts on this. Should emotional support animals be a thing? Absolutely

Is the current system abused Absolutely

I think the process of having an emotional support animal should be more difficult than simply paying someone online $100 and should be more difficult than simply getting a doctors note. If you want your dog to go in public places which typically don't allow animals you should have to go through some certification and training to make sure your pet is a friendly, well adjusted and safe animal to have around people and that your animal behaves as to not inconvenience, harm, or make other people uncomfortable.

Also, I feel the need to add I'm a huge animal lover myself and have two dogs in my family and am also someone who suffers from a bit of anxiety.

I'll also add I think we're kind of living in the era of me me me and fuck everyone else and where as in the past someone may have been a bit uncomfortable themselves for the comfort of others, today it's fuck everyone else I want my way.

Kind of a different example but I'm a smoker, yes I know it's a terrible habit and I'm trying to quit. While sometimes I may be craving a cigarette, if I'm around other people, even though I'm well within my legal right to light up a smoke, I will not do so because I know it can bother other people. I think people as a whole should be a bit more considerate of the comfort of other people as opposed to themselves.

One last comment, I think to some extent all animals are emotional support animals. I can definitely relaxes me sitting relaxing with my dogs giving them a pat on the head. If dogs weren't emotional support animals nobody would probably have them, but at what point does it become a right?

Let the debate begin. What are your thoughts?