Employees and Assistive Animals

One potential reasonable accommodation is allowing applicants or employees to bring assistive animals to the work site.1 An assistive animal is an animal necessary as a reasonable accommodation for a person with a disability and may include a:2

• Guide dog trained for the blind or visually impaired.
• Signal dog trained for the deaf or hearing impaired.
• Service dog or other animal individually trained to the requirements of a person with a disability.
• Support dog or other support animal.

A “support animal” provides emotional, cognitive or other similar support to a person with a disability, such as a traumatic brain injury or major depression. A support animal may constitute a reasonable accommodation in certain circumstances, the determination of which requires an individualized assessment through the interactive process.3

Although some assistive animals are specifically trained for certain functions (such as guide dogs), not all support animals receive specific training, as California law doesn’t require it. But employers may require that assistive animals meet minimum standards, such as being housebroken, free from offensive odors and not endangering the health or safety of anyone in the workplace.

Employees who request to bring assistive animals into the workplace may be required to supply:

• A letter from their health care provider expressing need for the animal (e.g., why the animal is necessary as an accommodation to allow the employee to perform the essential functions of the job); and
• Confirmation that the animal will behave appropriately in the workplace and meet the minimum standards. This can include employee-provided information.

If the animal is offensive or disruptive within its first two weeks at work, you may challenge whether the animal meets the minimum standards for the workplace.4 An employer can require that the employee provide annual recertification of continued need for the animal.

Customers and Service Animals

Apart from employers’ obligation to provide a reasonable accommodation to disabled employees, in some cases allowing an employee to bring an assistive animal to work, business owners may have to consider allowing animals into their business for another reason. Under the ADA, employers may have a separate obligation to allow customers to bring legitimate service animals into their business. Because service animals are legal, many business owners feel like their hands are tied when it comes to allowing their customers to bring animals into their businesses. However, there are things you can do to protect both your business from unwanted disruptions, and the individuals who rely on service animals to perform essential, life-saving tasks.

Under the ADA, a service animal is a dog or miniature horse that’s individually trained to perform work or tasks for a person with a disability. The definition’s first keyword is “dog” (no breed or size restrictions), meaning that while that parrot cannot be a service animal, a chihuahua can. Also note the special carve-out for miniature horses, which are favored by some individuals due to their longer life span and the stability they can offer persons with mobility impairments. The second key word is “trained.” A service animal need not be trained professionally or undergo any specific training certification process. However, animals who naturally aid a person with a disability because they are cuddly or comforting aren’t considered trained and don’t qualify as service animals.

There are two questions the ADA allows you to ask a customer who wants to enter your business with their dog or miniature horse:

• Is the animal required because of a disability?
• What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?

Consistently making these inquiries in their entirety forces the person who may be fraudulently representing that a pet is a service animal to state affirmatively that they need the animal due to a disability and to describe precisely what task that animal is trained to perform.

Business owners may not ask about the nature or extent of someone’s disability or require documentation or proof of certification or licensing for the service animal.

1. 2 CCR sec. 11065(p)(2)(B)