Gee, who didn't see this coming...

https://www.kansascity.com/new...rticle236491013.html

For some college roommates, emotional support animals are becoming emotional pains

BY ERIC ADLER
OCTOBER 26, 2019 05:00 AM, UPDATED OCTOBER 26, 2019 01:29 PM

At 18 years old, the Johnson County teen was already a bit stressed about moving to college in Illinois — unknown place, new people and all that.

But never did she anticipate that when she arrived this semester, not only had one of her suite mates brought a rambunctious 30-pound dog as an emotional support animal, or ESA, but the dog, barely 6 months old, seemed all but trained.

It may be an emotional support for one uncertain student, but for some suite mates it’s been an emotional pain.

“I’m not anti-dog. I’m not anti-ESA,” declared the student, who didn’t want her name used because she likes her suite mate, and the dog issue is sensitive. “The college didn’t give out any warning that there would be a dog in the suite.”

More than that: “I’m allergic to cats and dogs,” she said. When the dog’s owner is away, “you can hear the dog whining at night,” she said. The dog has vomited on the carpet once and urinated twice, including once on another suite mate. The place sometimes smells.

“They haven’t cleaned up any of his messes,” said the student, who already plans to make sure she is not in a room with another emotional support dog come next year.

Colleges nationwide are seeing a significant rise in the number of students arriving on campuses not only with books and bedding, but also with therapists’ letters requesting they be allowed to keep all manner of emotional support animals in their rooms. Unlike service animals, such as those used for visually impaired students, emotional support animals act as living salves to help students deal with everything from generalized anxiety to serious mental illnesses like depression and bipolar disorder.

Five years ago, Kansas State University officials received only a single request by a student to keep an emotional support animal in a dorm room. This year they’ve received 42, of which 23 were approved. They have 31 such animals on campus now, mostly dogs and cats, as is the case at most colleges, but there’s also an emotional support rat and guinea pig.

At the University of Kansas , where numbers doubled from 13 in 2017 to 27 this year, one student asked to bring his emotional support flying possum, known as a sugar glider. The University of Missouri’s numbers went from eight in 2016 to 33 this fall.

At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, numbers shot from five in the fall of 2015 to 118 two years later before dipping to the current 83. Among the menagerie in that time: “Miniature pig, bearded dragons, geckos, rats and birds,” said university spokeswoman Mary Dettloff.

At the University of Nebraska, emotional support animals went from one in 2014 to a high of 39 in 2017, dipping to 21 so far this year. Dogs, cats and rabbits make up the bulk. But over the years, spokesman Sean Hagewood said in an email, campus housing has been home to “a hamster, two rats, a hedgehog and a python (accompanied by live mice to feed it).“

PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS
Few doubt that comfort is needed and aids students.

In a study published this year in the journal Psychiatric Services, physician Justin Chen, a researcher at Harvard University Medical School, and colleagues analyzed data from nearly 17,000 undergraduates at 108 colleges. The data came from 2015 American College Health Association–National College Health Assessment. Nearly 25 percent reported suffering a mental illness within the previous year.

A survey in 2014 showed it’s not just a U.S. problem. The World Health Organization surveyed 14,000 college students in eight countries and found one-third, 35 percent, suffered one or more of six diagnosed mental illnesses: depression, mania or hypomania, anxiety, panic disorder or substance abuse to numb feelings. The U.S. figure was nearly 29 percent.

Elise Wantling felt that having her cat George, a nubby-tailed Manx, was a godsend at KU. Wantling, a St. Louis native who is 21 now and a student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, entered KU in 2016.

“For me, I actually needed an ESA,” she said recently. “I was having a pretty hard time being away from my family and losing my support system. I didn’t have a roommate. A lot of people on the roommate sites didn’t want to be my roommate because I identify with the LGBT community. It got to point where I was pretty tired of having my feelings hurt.”

So she paid extra for a single room and went to the local Humane Society, where she found George, whom she named for her beloved and late grandfather. Wantling had been diagnosed with severe depression and extreme anxiety. She’d later receive a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Plus:

“I just got really lonely,” Wantling said. “It was really difficult not to have someone to come home to every day. Making friends was harder than I anticipated. I was pretty introverted. It was hard for me to find my people.”

Then a friend mentioned that an emotional support animal was possible. Wantling filled out the paperwork that KU and most other schools require, including a note from a therapist or doctor.

“When I came home,” she said of George, “he would greet me at the door. He would sleep with me every night and cuddle with me.

“He made things easier. It definitely gave me something to work for. When there were days I didn’t want to get out of bed and go to class, I had to get out of bed and feed George. He would wake me up every morning. He’d step all over me. George wants me to go to class.”

Some colleges, including Stephens College in Columbia, don’t require doctors’ notes at all. It has promoted the warm and fuzzy benefits of pets on campus for at least a decade, encouraging students to bring them to the dorms. The school even gives some scholarships to students who foster dogs and cats from a local shelter.

FIGHTING LIKE CATS AND DOGS
To be sure, most roommates appear to welcome ESAs. But threads on social media sites Reddit also show that one person’s balm can be another’s bother.

Posted in July, from a college student with three roommates: “One roommate has an emotional support dog who is two years old. The first week we moved in the dog s*** all over my rug and shoes and peed on my other roommate’s bed. … Since then, the dog has peed or pooped in the apartment about twice a week. I often clean it up. It sheds constantly.”

Posted in September, from a college student with three roommates. One wants a support dog: “My thing is just, we’re over a month into the semester and I didn’t sign up to live with a dog. … I don’t want to live with a potentially yappy puppy. Plus there’s still the issue of smell and hair.”

Another post from July: “I let her know it was going to be an issue because I’m allergic to all cats and certain types of dogs, but any other animal was fine. Her response was to say she’d do whatever it takes to ‘make me comfortable,’ but I’m ALLERGIC. It’s not life threatening, but it’s like constantly having a cold.”

Others complain about roommates whom they believe are part of a rash of fraudulent claims about the need for a support animal. The internet is rife with ads from “ESA mills” allowing people to get medical letters stating they need such an animal, even if there is little to no proof. People use the letters, then buy the vests for emotional support animals online, to allow them to take their pets into restaurants, on airlines and to sidestep rules against pets in apartments.

Posted in August: “The lease just said ‘no pets without written permission,’ and when I asked for permission to adopt a cat they said no. … I think I’d have a case for getting approval for a support animal since I am on medication for depression and I experience mild anxiety from time to time. I by no means NEED an emotional support animal, I just really want to adopt a cat.”

IT’S THE LAW
Although making accommodations for support animals has much to do with helping students manage anxiety and the like, it was first spurred by the law.

In 2010, a student, Brittany Hamilton, had asked the University of Nebraska at Kearney to allow her to bring her 4-pound miniature pinscher, Butch, into student housing, saying Butch helped her cope with anxiety and depression.

The university said no. Butch wasn’t a service dog, and his presence in campus housing would go against the university’s no-pets policy.

Hamilton sued, saying she was being denied her civil right in that the university was discriminating against her in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability.

Four year later, in 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice settled a civil rights lawsuit with the university on behalf of Hamilton and another student.

The university was forced to pay out $140,000 and to change its housing policy to allow students with psychological disabilities to keep animals at the university.

Kent State University in Ohio would similarly settle in 2016, paying $100,000 to two students. Grand Valley State University in Michigan would pay out $40,000 to a student in 2013 for denying her the right to bring her emotional support guinea pig into the dorms.

Since then, the numbers of support animals on campus, though not widespread, have still continued to grow.

Rules tend to be similar: Students have to fill out paperwork and offer therapists’ or doctors’ letters to show they need a support animal. The animals must stay in their rooms unless they’re being walked. Unlike service animals, emotional support animals can’t come to class or into other buildings.

Why don’t colleges at least inform new students that a cat, dog, gecko or flying opossum might be part of a room arrangement?

Because the emotional support animals are related to private medical conditions, officials said. A university cannot tell prospective roommates that they might also be living with someone else’s pet without that information violating a student’s privacy.

“That makes sense,” said the freshman from Johnson County who wondered why her Illinois college hadn’t informed her that one of her suite mates would be bringing a dog.

Schools instead strongly encourage students with emotional support animals to share that information with their new roommates before they move in, just in case there’s a problem.

If there is, colleges typically help students find new rooms.

“If my allergies were any worse,” the Johnson County student said, “I would probably have to request a move.”

Wow - how many decades and no need for ESA ---suddenly an influx...We really need to thin this herd - let Darwin prevail.

Airlines have tightened their policies, maybe there is hope.

I still wonder why we need to show the prescription to get a disabled tag, and such tags are verifiable by law enforcement, yet there is no such verification for "therapy animals" and the law actually restricts what questions you can ask to "service animals".

I don't see why we're can't come up with s license tag that van be verified in the same manor? An animal is brought into an establishment... check the tag. Valid? No problem... not valid? See your way out.

The world has gone upside down. I’m glad I’m old.

Or what if ESA were only available from CVS or Walgreens? What if your Dr prescribed a 90# Malanois but you prefer a 5# Chihuahua?

How’d did we survive decades of college life and world wars without this BS?

What’s next? The emotional support pets will need emotional support pets?

These people will be eaten first when society crumbles.

And their freakin' support emus and llamas, too.

I'm baffled that there was never a standard enforced for emotional support animals. There should be a certification of training by approved professionals before one can assert the status of their animal. Anything other than that is just a pet.

We are dealing with this more and more at work.

We went to a "staff" apartment recently and were warned that they were not home and there was an "ESA" in the apartment.

I commented to the office staff that I wasn't sure I wanted to go to the apartment, that it must be awful there. The staff was a bit puzzled. I explained, well if "so and so" is out and about in the harsh cruel world, and they don't need their emotional support animal with them, they apparently only need it around when they're home. So home must be pretty awful.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:
Or what if ESA were only available from CVS or Walgreens? What if your Dr prescribed a 90# Malanois but you prefer a 5# Chihuahua?

How’d did we survive decades of college life and world wars without this BS?

We weren't snowflakes who'd never been told NO or suffered any rejection as children--we learned that life is not alwayss fair and we don't always get our way. Many youths today are totally unprepared to deal with real life.

flashguy

I couldnt take my ESA when I went to Basic.
I should have sued.

Good grief. This leaves me speechless. If I ever have to interview one of these people and they bring an esa to the interview, I might just lose it.

Emotional support animals are certified by “ A licensed mental health professional (therapist, psychiatrist, MD, etc.) must determine that your anxiety, depression, PTSD experience, or other emotional challenge is "disabling".
In other words a diagnosis found in DSM IV.
What’s happening here is colleges are confusing service animals with emotional support animals. They don’t have the courage to confront fakes and kick them out.
Any emotional support or service animal that is out of control or is disruptive can be made to leave.

I had emotional support beer and an emotional support college girlfriend. So did my only two roommates. None ever peed on the floor or vomited on a roomie, at least not that I recall. Oh, and we all cleared it with each other before the latter came over. Permission was always more or less assumed for the first.

quote:

Originally posted by Icabod:
Emotional support animals are certified by “ A licensed mental health professional (therapist, psychiatrist, MD, etc.) must determine that your anxiety, depression, PTSD experience, or other emotional challenge is "disabling".
In other words a diagnosis found in DSM IV.
What’s happening here is colleges are confusing service animals with emotional support animals. They don’t have the courage to confront fakes and kick them out.
Any emotional support or service animal that is out of control or is disruptive can be made to leave.

I'm going to have to call BS on this post. My coworker was just showing me his ESA ID her purchased online for $30 telling me when he moves that he can't be denied housing even if there is a no pets policy.

I told him I'd throw the little card in his face and tell him to fuck off if he were trying to rent a room or my basement from me. He started in with his internet purchased card BS again, and I told him I wouldn't give a fuck, I'm not letting a dog in my house so he could sue me if he's got the time and money or just look for another room to rent and save a bunch of time and money.

ESA = I really want this dog or cat ND am willing to game the system to get what I want, to who's detriment I don't care.

Dear College Snowflake:

Here's a thought: Grow the fuck up and deal!

Previous posters are right. They're fucked when/if they ever get confronted with actual life.

quote:

I'm going to have to call BS on this post. My coworker was just showing me his ESA ID her purchased online for $30 telling me when he moves that he can't be denied housing even if there is a no pets policy.

^^^^^^^^^
No question there is a lot of abuse. The airlines have clearer guidelines.

There are service dogs that are trained for emotional support. usually takes 3-5 years to train. They have credentials

What the college student has a pet thats not being taken care of!!!!!

this pisses me off so much.