In a new article published on the Student Housing Business website, PetScreening.com Founder John Ray Bradford discusses Service Animals vs. Assistance Animals and covers when and where the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Fair Housing Act (FHAct) are applicable.

In an article published by the National Apartment Association (NAA), Kortney Balas of JVM Realty Corporation discusses an on-going problem within the property management industry — unauthorized pets.

When a household pet gets loose or runs away from home, it can be stressful for the pet owner when trying to find the pet and devastating if the pet never returns. While there are measures one can and should take to keep his or her pet secure, having a pet go missing can happen to anyone — even the most responsible pet owner.

It happens time and time again, and the reasons given are common: “I didn’t know.” Or: “Nobody told me I couldn’t do this.”

Residents will often move into a community without a pet, but they may adopt one or have a friend or relative visit with a pet. Some may even start a pet-sitting business in their living rooms. On most occasions, they do not notify the community of these new pet-related developments. Naturally, this creates a risk for the community, especially if those pets have a history of barking, running off leash or even violent behavior.

If you’re like most people, you probably use the terms service animal and assistance animal interchangeably especially when discussing the recent media coverage about the person with an emotional support alligator or the peacock trying to board an airplane. If you’re a multifamily professional, not knowing the difference between these two terms could result in costly and risky unintended consequences.

To help prevent such a scenario from happening, you simply need to know the difference between a service animal and an assistance animal. More importantly, knowing when and how to deal with each one is imperative. Understanding the differences can help ensure you don’t ask an inappropriate question that could result in inadvertently discriminating against a person with a disability or help prevent a bad actor from committing animal fraud.

Service Animals
Service animals are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which is applicable to areas of public accommodation where members of the general public are allowed. Areas within multifamily residential communities that qualify as places of public accommodation are covered by the ADA if use of the areas is not limited exclusively to owners, residents, and their guests. That means the main leasing office, which is open to the general public, is covered by ADA requirements for service animals. The ADA, however, does not cover animal-related accommodation requests for private residency such as apartment homes.

The ADA specifically limits a service animal to a dog or a miniature horse and the service animal must be trained to perform a task(s) for the benefit of an individual with a disability. Animals that offer emotional support, comfort, protection and companionship do not meet the definition of a service animal and are not covered under the ADA. The important issues to note about a service animal are that you are only allowed to ask two questions and no proof is needed:

The following is a partial transcript from the PetScreening pawdcast, ep.3. To listen to the full episode, click here.

"Hi! It's John Bradford, pet lover and founder of PetScreening.com. Welcome to the PetScreening podcast. Today, I'm going to talk a little bit about insurance companies and their restrictions regarding pets, and how sometimes this is used as a reason to deny someone from bringing a specific breed into a property under their accommodation request. We're going to talk about why that is not a wise thing to do or why that is not a wise reason to use as to why you're denying an accommodation request.

Press release: Software update standardizes the ESA / service animal review process

CHARLOTTE – Feb. 26 – PetScreening.com, a first-of-its-kind screening platform that empowers property managers to outsource their pet risk assessment and assistance animal validation processes, at no charge, announced it has released its Version 2.0 enhancements to the proprietary platform.

Hi, PetScreening Pack Members! Here’s how to set up your custom URL and branded landing page.

The following is a transcript of PetScreening.com Pawdcast episode "An Overview & Value Propositions". To listen to this episode, click here.

Hi, this is John Bradford, pet lover and founder of PetScreening.com. PetScreening.com operates in all 50 states here in the United States as well as in Canada. Our corporate office is located in the Queen City — Charlotte, North Carolina.

In our blog spot post, Retrieving FIDO Scores for Household Pets, PetScreening Founder, John Bradford, talks about his personal experience with screening his dog, Maggie*, and her PetScreening FIDO Score™. 

Our patent pending and proprietary FIDO Score™ ranges between 5-paw down to 0-paw and is included with each Pet Profile we screen at PetScreening. (Note: Assistance animals do not receive a FIDO Score™.)