In a world where young families more often have pets than children, bringing your four-legged friend to someone’s wedding doesn’t seem like a big deal. In fact, according to a survey by WeddingWire, one-third of pet owners have included their pets in their engagement or wedding.
But this mother and daughter got into a huge fight about the mom bringing her pet pig to the daughter’s wedding. After the animal caused a ruckus during the reception, the women had a spat in front of the guests, causing the mother to feel publicly humiliated. Still, the bride sparked a discussion about what kind of animals should be allowed at weddings.
Pets and animals provide us with a great deal of comfort, and a whopping 72% of Americans say they have a pet at home. Interestingly, 18% of those pet owners also have had them certified as emotional support animals.
An emotional support animal (ESA) is not the same as a service animal. Service animals are trained specifically to aid a person with their emotional or physical disability. The main difference between an ESA and a service animal is that they do some sort of task. If an animal just makes you feel better, it’s an emotional support animal.
Still, only people with a mental health condition can get a pet certified to be an ESA. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a licensed mental health professional has to sign off on the certification. “It provides therapeutic emotional support to alleviate a symptom or effect of the disability of the patient/client, and not merely as a pet,” the agency adds.
You can’t take an emotional support animal with you on a plane, since they don’t have public access or air travel protections. The same goes for other public spaces: say, a café that isn’t animal-friendly can deny entry to an ESA if it chooses to.