An emotional support animal is just a mouse click away
There are very few rules governing emotional support animals, and there is no official registry, so it’s hard to establish how many there are. To present a pet – whether a dog, a ferret or a snake – as an emotional support animal, all one has to do is provide a letter written by a licensed mental health practitioner attesting to the psychological benefit of that pet’s presence.
While the spirit of the law may have been intended to allow mental health professionals to better serve the needs of their patients, it has also enabled a whole new business to flourish. Multiple online companies now provide these official letters without ever seeing anyone in person.
Simply pay them a fee in the $150 – $200 range, fill out an open-ended questionnaire online and within 24 hours, your ferret could be sitting on your lap during that Thanksgiving flight home, with no extra airline fee.
Since these services provide an emotional support letter without meeting the patient, it is relatively easy for anyone to obtain one.
(taking a kind idea and making a buck out of it ...
)
There are very few rules governing emotional support animals, and there is no official registry, so it’s hard to establish how many there are. To present a pet – whether a dog, a ferret or a snake – as an emotional support animal, all one has to do is provide a letter written by a licensed mental health practitioner attesting to the psychological benefit of that pet’s presence.
While the spirit of the law may have been intended to allow mental health professionals to better serve the needs of their patients, it has also enabled a whole new business to flourish. Multiple online companies now provide these official letters without ever seeing anyone in person.
Simply pay them a fee in the $150 – $200 range, fill out an open-ended questionnaire online and within 24 hours, your ferret could be sitting on your lap during that Thanksgiving flight home, with no extra airline fee.
Since these services provide an emotional support letter without meeting the patient, it is relatively easy for anyone to obtain one.
(taking a kind idea and making a buck out of it ...
)
