Emotional Support Animal and Compliance Webinar

Municipalities are facing more emotional support animal requests than ever, whether in a Public Housing Agency, Section 8 and other voucher housing, animal welfare reports, or removal/ euthanasia of dangerous animals.

An estimated 60-90% of Emotional Support Animal and Psychiatric Service Dog letters for housing accommodation under Section 504 and the Fair Housing Act are invalid or fraudulent.  HUD’s 2013 Assistance Animal guidelines provided a map for international website owners and unethical medical practitioners to create “internet letter mills” that immediately send Emotional Support Animal Letters after a credit card entry, sometimes after a perfunctory phone or video call. There is no medical examination with personal knowledge nor ongoing medical therapy requiring an assistance animal. To combat pervasive fraud, HUD issued 2020 guidelines and asked the FTC to investigate this internet disability fraud, but the FTC declined to do so. The result was more proliferation of fraudulent ESA disability letters.

After the Supreme Court case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024), courts began to interpret FHA statutes and codes instead of precedents based on HUD guidelines or other disability laws. In September 2025, HUD withdrew its guidelines. (Note: HUD still has not updated its website to reflect the current state of the law.)

The risks of accommodating a fraudulent request may be just as high as denying a valid request. Requests must be considered on a case-by-case basis, and use of a third-party internet verification service may violate the Fair Housing Act. Thus, municipalities should remain the primary arbiters of ESA letter validity and attorneys should update their animal policies and training.

Federal assistance animal accommodation is a creation of law that stems from ethical medical clinicians who examine humans and treat with therapy using an animal. A request also requires an examination of the animal by a person competent to document that a specific animal alleviates a substantially limited major life activity (caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, etc.).

Speakers: Teresa Martinez, Zenithson Ng & Joel Touchet