![\"Pit](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_26-05-25_20-38-51-756-e1779766766794.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n WASHINGTON D.C.\u2013\u2013<\/strong>Pit bull owners with professed psychiatric issues,\u00a0 animal shelters used to rehoming pit bulls to the admittedly deranged,\u00a0 and animal advocacy organizations espousing \u201cWe can save them all!\u201d are already going Kong toys over a newly narrowed definition of service animals allowed to live with disabled tenants in rental housing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Donald Trump administration on Friday,\u00a0 May 22,\u00a0 2026,\u201d\u00a0 hours before the start of the three-day Memorial Day weekend, \u00a0\u00a0\u201cin an internal memo obtained by The New York Times<\/em>,\u201d introduced a policy change \u201cthat could lead to thousands of animals and their owners being evicted,\u201d\u00a0 revealed New York Times<\/em> reporters Chris Cameron and Debra Kamin.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Specifically,\u00a0 Cameron and Kamin continued,\u00a0 \u201cThe Department of Housing & Urban Development told leaders in its fair housing office that \u2018effective immediately\u201d the department would exclude emotional support animals and more strictly police the definition of a qualified service animal when granting accommodations for disabled tenants.\u201d<\/p>\n This action particularly affects pit bull owners,\u00a0 who in recent years have increasingly often claimed their pit bulls are \u2019emotional support animals\u2019 in order to evade breed-specific housing restrictions,\u00a0 often based on which dogs landlords\u2019 insurance providers are willing to cover.<\/p>\n Insurance providers may not refuse to cover dogs recognized as service animals under the Department of Housing & Urban Development definitions in effect during the tenure of rental.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Detailed Cameron and Kamin,\u00a0 \u201cMany landlords enforce a no-pets policy, \u00a0or may charge renters a deposit or monthly fee for pets. \u00a0Under the Fair Housing Act,\u00a0 disabled tenants can ask to have those restrictions waived to accommodate their disabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the first Trump administration,\u201d\u00a0 Cameron and Kamin explained,\u00a0 the Department of Housing & Urban Development \u201cissued guidance to landlords reinforcing that emotional support animals and other assistance animals were not considered pets, \u00a0and were protected by the Fair Housing Act.<\/p>\n \u201cOfficials noted that emotional support animals provided \u201ctherapeutic emotional support\u201d for people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Indeed,\u00a0 other federal departments during the first Trump administration went even farther than that.<\/p>\n Elaine Lan Chao,\u00a0 U.S. Secretary of Transportation throughout the Donald Trump presidential administration,\u00a0 on November 30,\u00a0 2020 introduced a revised Air Carrier Access Act regulation on the transportation of service animals by air which obliges airlines to accept pit bulls as service dogs until and unless a specific pit bull actually demonstrates dangerous behavior.<\/p>\n In practical terms,\u00a0 this means the pit bull must actively menace or even bite someone before the pit bull can be removed from a flight.<\/p>\n However,\u00a0 the revised Air Carrier Access Act regulation excludes \u201cemotional support\u201d animals from the \u201cservice animal\u201d definition.<\/p>\n (See Trump administration obliges airlines to carry \u201cservice\u201d pit bulls<\/a><\/strong>.)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n New York Times<\/em> writers Cameron and Kamin linked the Department of Housing & Urban Development policy change to immigration issues,\u00a0 noting that \u201cThe housing department, under the leadership of [Trump appointee] Scott Turner,\u00a0 has moved aggressively to tighten rules and scrutinize public housing rolls, including by focusing on the immigration status of tenants.\u201d<\/p>\n This linkage,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 is a rather improbable stretch,\u00a0 in view that the Department of Housing & Urban Development policy change applies to all U.S. rental housing,\u00a0 of which public housing constitutes only 2%.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n A simpler,\u00a0 more direct explanation is the rapidly increasing number of six-and-seven-figure insurance payouts resulting from pit bull attacks.<\/p>\n During the six years that the previous Trump administration definition of emotional support animals as covered by the Fair Housing Act was in effect,\u00a0 the average insurance payout in a dog bite case,\u00a0 according to Insurance Information Institute data,\u00a0 nearly doubled,\u00a0 from circa $37,000 to $70,000.<\/p>\n Elected officials leaning both left and right have responded to this reality.<\/p>\n (See NY governor Hochul upholds higher renters insurance premiums for pit bulls<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Continued Cameron and Kamin,\u00a0 \u201cThe memo to housing officials on assistance animals presented emotional support animals as a loophole to circumvent a landlord\u2019s pet policies, \u00a0asserting that \u2018an entire industry has emerged to convert pets into emotional support animals.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe memo concluded that \u201cwhile requests to waive pet policies for animals trained to perform specific disability related services are presumptively reasonable, \u00a0requests to waive pet policies for untrained\u2019 emotional support animals \u2018are not.’\u201d<\/p>\n Discovering the extent of the \u201centire industry \u201d that \u201chas emerged to convert pets into emotional support animals\u201d is as quick and easy as a doing an online search for providers of \u201cESA letters\u201d asserting that the recipient has an emotional or psychiatric need to keep a dog.<\/p>\n In theory \u201cESA letters\u201d are supposed to come from a physician,\u00a0 psychiatrist,\u00a0 or psychologist.\u00a0 In practice,\u00a0 there is no actual enforceable requirement for the author of an \u201cESA letter\u201d to be verifiably any sort of mental health professional.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Neither does an \u201cESA letter\u201d have any more legal weight than a mail order \u201cservice dog\u201d vest,\u00a0 but it is an often intimidating prop to landlords aware that the Americans with Disabilities Act allows a business managers facing someone who demands access to premises with a purported service dog to ask only two questions:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIs the dog required because of a disability?\u201d and \u201cWhat work or task has the dog been trained to do?\u201d<\/p>\n Even if the answers are questionable, asking any further questions of a person who can establish a claim to possessing a legitimate service dog in court are a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.<\/p>\n The fines for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act are $55,000 for the first offense and $100,000 for each additional offense. Falsely accusing a valid service dog can result in lawsuits as well. The dog owner can also sue the business for damages.<\/p>\n The Fair Housing Act is not as restrictive as the Americans with Disabilities Act,\u00a0 but the managers of rental premises often do not understand the difference,\u00a0 and do not risk making a mistake.<\/p>\n (See How the Americans with Disabilities Act has become the \u201cPit Bull Pushers Act\u201d<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development [HUD] website \u201cHelping Americans\u2019 Assistance Animals\u201d defines an \u201cassistance animal\u201d as an animal who \u201cworks, \u00a0provides assistance, o r performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, \u00a0or provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified effects of a person\u2019s disability. \u00a0An assistance animal is not a pet.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the heading \u201cObligations of Housing Providers,\u201d\u00a0 HUD explains that,\u00a0 \u201cIndividuals with a disability may request to keep an assistance animal as a reasonable accommodation to a housing provider\u2019s pet restrictions.<\/p>\n \u201cHousing providers cannot refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, \u00a0policies, \u00a0practices, \u00a0or services when such accommodations may be necessary to afford a person with a disability the equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling.\u201d<\/p>\nFair Housing Act no longer shields pit bull owners who claim mental illness<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nStricter policing<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nSecond Trump administration reverses the first<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAirlines forced to carry \u201cservice\u201d pit bulls<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nInsurance,\u00a0 not immigration,\u00a0 is the issue<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nSimpler,\u00a0 more direct explanation<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cIndustry has emerged to convert pets into emotional support animals\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cTwo questions\u201d rule does not apply to the Fair Housing Act<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nHUD definition<\/h2>\n