Missouri Laws on Service Dogs and Emotional Support Animals

Under Missouri's disability law and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disabilities can bring their service dogs to all "public accommodations," such as stores, motels, restaurants, theaters, and schools.

Public accommodations in Missouri must comply with both state and federal law.

This article will review which animals qualify as service animals and which public accommodations must admit them. We'll also discuss how federal and state housing laws treat service animals and emotional support animals.

What Is a Service Animal in Missouri?

Under Missouri law, people with disabilities have the right to bring their service dogs into public places. The state law defines service dogs as dogs individually trained to do work or perform tasks for someone with a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or mental disability. (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 209.200(2).)

Examples of the tasks your animal could do to meet Missouri's definition of a service dog include, but aren't limited to the following:

• guiding someone who is visually impaired
• alerting a deaf person to specific sounds, like a doorbell or alarm
• pulling a wheelchair
• performing search and rescue to prevent a person with a mental disability from becoming lost
• alerting its handler that a medical event (like a seizure) is about to occur or responding to a medical event that has occurred, or
• retrieving and carrying items.

Missouri's disability rights law explicitly covers mental disabilities, and psychiatric service dogs are included in the state's definition of service dogs, as long as they're specially trained to perform tasks that mitigate or assist with difficulties directly related to the owner's disability.

Under the ADA, a service animal is a dog individually trained to perform disability-related tasks or work for a person with a disability. (28 C.F.R. § 36.104.) In some cases, a miniature horse can also qualify as a service animal. Examples of service animals that must be admitted to public accommodations under the ADA include:

• hearing dogs, which alert their handlers to important sounds, such as alarms, doorbells, and telephones
• guide dogs, which help those who are blind or have low vision to navigate safely
• psychiatric service animals, which help their handlers manage mental and emotional disabilities by, for example, interrupting self-harming behaviors, reminding handlers to take medication, checking spaces for intruders, or providing calming pressure during anxiety or panic attacks
• seizure alert animals, which let their handlers know of impending seizures, and might also guard their handlers during seizure activity, and
• allergen alert animals, which let their handlers know of foods or other substances that could be dangerous (such as nuts).

Are Emotional Support Dogs Service Animals in Missouri?

Emotional support animals (ESAs) are animals that provide a sense of safety, companionship, and comfort to those with psychiatric or emotional disabilities or conditions. Although these animals often have therapeutic benefits, they aren't trained to perform specific tasks for their handlers.

Neither the ADA nor Missouri's law treats ESAs as service dogs and neither law requires owners of public accommodations to admit emotional support animals, only service animals.

Missouri's disability rights law does include "professional therapy dogs," which are selected, trained, and tested to provide specific physical therapeutic functions, under the direction and control of a professional handler (not a volunteer), whether the dog is used in institutional settings, community-based group settings, or providing services to individuals with disabilities. Professional therapy dogs are allowed to go wherever service dogs can go.

Which Public Accommodations Must Allow Service Animals

Under the ADA, the definition of public accommodations is very broad. It covers most places open to the public, including:

• hotels and other lodging establishments
• public transportation, including terminals and stations
• restaurants
• educational institutions
• social service centers, and
• any place of public gathering, such as:
  • theaters
  • stadiums
  • museums
  • gyms and spas, and
  • zoos and parks.

The ADA exempts religious organizations, even if they offer secular services (like daycare) to non-members. Private clubs also don't have to allow service animals in members-only areas, but are required to comply with the ADA anyplace open to the general public (like a country club restaurant open to the public or an event space that non-members can rent). (28 C.F. R. § 36.102(e).)

Missouri law protects your right to bring your service dog with you in most public places too. (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 209.150.) The state law covers all of the following types of places:

• hotels and other lodging places
• public buildings and facilities
• public transportation and common carriers (like buses and taxis)
• all public places of amusement or recreation, and
• any other place to which the public is invited.

Rules for Your Service Animal

Under the ADA, a public accommodation can't ask you about your disability or demand to see certification or other proof of your animal's training or status. If it isn't apparent what your service animal does, the establishment can ask you only whether it is a service animal, and what tasks it performs for you. (28 C.F.R. § 35.136(f).)

The ADA and Missouri law prohibit public accommodations from charging a special admission fee or requiring you to pay any other extra cost to have your service animal with you. But under the ADA, you might have to pay for any damage your animal causes. And Missouri law says you will be liable for any damage your dog does.

Under the ADA, a public accommodation can exclude your service animal if it:

• poses a direct threat to the health and safety of others
• isn't housebroken, or
• is out of control (and you can't or won't get it under control).

If your animal is excluded for one of these reasons, you still have the right to enter the public accommodation without your service dog and obtain goods, services, or accommodations. (28 C.F.R. § 36.302(c)(3).)

Service Animals in Missouri Housing

Missouri and federal law prohibit discrimination in rental housing accommodations against those who use service animals. Your landlord can't charge you extra for having a service animal (although you'll likely have to pay for damage your animal causes).

You and your service animal must be allowed full and equal access to all housing facilities. If your lease or rental agreement includes a "no pets" provision, it doesn't apply to your service animal.

Missouri's housing law doesn't protect the rights of all people with disabilities to have any type of service dog in housing. The state law specifically protects only:

• blind or partially blind people who have guide dogs
• deaf or partially deaf people who have hearing dogs, and
• people with physical disabilities who have service dogs.

Missouri housing law doesn't appear to protect the rights of people with mental disabilities who have service animals or emotional support animals. (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 209.190.) But Missouri landlords must follow federal housing law, discussed just below.

Emotional Support Animals in Missouri Housing

Under the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA), housing facilities must allow "assistance animals," which includes both service dogs and emotional support animals—as long as having the animal is necessary for someone with a disability to have an equal opportunity to use and enjoy the home. To fall under this provision, you must have a disability and a disability-related need for the animal.

Under the FHA, an assistance animal doesn't have to be a dog or miniature horse; it can be any species. To qualify as an assistance animal and fall under federal Fair Housing Act protections, your animal must do perform tasks or services or alleviate the emotional effects of your disability.

Unlike the ADA, this federal housing rights law allows landlords to ask for documentation of your need for the service dog or ESA, but only if your disability or your need for the assistance animal isn't apparent. So, someone with PTSD might have to show proof of the need for an emotional support cat, but a landlord can't ask a blind tenant for proof of the need for a guide dog.

(Learn more on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's assistance animals page at HUD.com.)