Emotional Support? Law, Social Control, and the Medicalization of the Human-Animal Bond

• In Event: 40863 - Animals Across Sociological Inquiry

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of emotional support animals (ESAs) has come under increasing scrutiny in the U.S., leading to a backlash and cascade of new laws addressing the issue of “fake service animals.” This article examines law, policy, and public discourse about ESAs within two distinct social contexts: 1) the emergence of multispecies families in a society in which pets are barred from many public and private spaces, and 2) the social construction of emotional support animals and the medicalization of everyday life. This article argues that the social construction of ESAs, while well-intentioned, creates a problematic medicalization of the human-animal bond that is ultimately detrimental to the well-being of both companion animals and their caregivers, as well as to disability rights. The social construction of the boundary between “normal” and mental illness is itself the subject of significant debate, with many critiquing the medicalization of daily life (i.e., defining and treating nonmedical problems as illnesses) as a worrisome trend. In this context, I will examine both the evidence and discourse underlying the prescribing of animals as therapeutic treatment for disorders deemed to benefit from “emotional support”—frequently anxiety, depression, panic, and post-traumatic stress disorders. I argue that the legal and social construction of ESAs represents the medicalization of the bond between companion animals and their caregivers and creates a two-tiered system where in order to obtain equal access to basic necessities like housing, caregivers of companion animals must obtain a medical diagnosis and genuinely or craftily inhabit a sick role. Equally troubling is the anthropocentricity of the ESA designation, which centers what animals can do for humans without considering the emotional support needs of the animal herself.

Author

• Nicole R Pallotta, Animal Legal Defense Fund