While any animal could be an emotional support animal, there are some things and characteristics that you must consider before getting the one for you. Some animals are high on energy and outgoing, these types of animals make great pets but they may not be an equally great emotional support animal.
Choosing an ESA requires more hard work than getting an emotional support animal letter only and to make sure that you get the best and befitting ESA for yourself, look for the following 6 characteristics in it.
1. Animal’s Legal State
The animal must be legal in your state. There are many animals and especially the exotic and wild animals that are illegal to keep and domesticate. Similarly, there are some kinds of dog breeds and other types of animals that are not considered suitable as emotional support animals. Therefore, before getting an ESA, make sure that it is legal in your state.
2. Your Housing Conditions and Budget
Other than the legal factors, your emotional support animal must be perfectly suitable and perfect to live with you. Some animals could not live in small spaces while others are quite good for apartment or small space living. When choosing an ESA, make sure that it is according to your resident.
Additionally, how much can you spend on your ESA’s health and food? Cats and dogs are generally more demanding than other animals and may not be the best choice if your budget is more suited for a rabbit or birds.
3. Animal Allergies
Do you have pet allergies? If yes then choose a hypoallergenic animal. There are many cat and dog breeds that cause comparatively fewer allergies than their usual counterparts and there are many animals that do not cause any allergies at all. Talk to your doctor before taking any decision and make sure that the chosen animal is not a threat to your health.
4. Animal’s Temperament
Ideally, an emotional support animal must be even and gentle tempered. Rough animals could be a good choice if you are looking for someone who could keep you company in the evenings and do not mind snuggling up with you and watching Netflix. Other than this, your animal must not be a threat to other people also. Even-tempered animals are good around strangers while many anxious types of animals could attack when they are scared.
Moreover, try to find an animal that matches your temperament and could get along with you well.
5. Attentive and Reliable
Your animal should be attentive to your needs and must know how to understand your behavior and needs. Moreover, for people suffering from panic attacks and anxiety attacks, their animals must be calm in unusual and unknown situations.
Cats and dogs are usually quite good at it, thanks to the time they have spent to understand us, and this is one of the reasons many ESA letter owners prefer them.
6. Animal’s Living Habits
Every animal has different living habits. Some like to live in solitary while many others could not live alone. Animals like cats and dogs do well when they are alone and even when they have company if their own kind while animals like rabbits and guinea pigs love to live with their ‘friends’.
Keeping a social animal means that you have to get at least two of them. In case you cannot handle two animals, it is better to choose the one that you could maintain and handle.
ESAs are here to help us live our lives normally but just like not all humans are similar, all animals are also not similar. When choosing an ESA for you, make sure that you have considered all the mentioned characteristics in your animal and also make sure that you done emotional support animal registration.
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