New Mexico Laws on Service Dogs and Emotional Support Animals

Under New Mexico's Service Animal Act and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disabilities have the right to be accompanied by their service animals in restaurants, hotels, stores, theaters, and other public places. Read on to learn which public accommodations are covered and which animals qualify as service animals. We'll also discuss how federal and state housing laws differ from public accommodation laws and when and where emotional support animals are allowed.

Which Animals Count as Qualified Service Animals in New Mexico?

Under the New Mexico Service Animal Act, public accommodations must allow you to be accompanied by your "qualified service animal." The law defines a qualified service animal as a service dog or service miniature horse trained to do work or perform tasks to benefit an individual with a disability. (N.M. Stat. § 28-11-2.)

The ADA defines a service animal as a dog or miniature horse trained to perform disability-related tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability. Examples of service animals that must be allowed into public accommodations under the ADA include:

• hearing dogs, which alert their handlers to important sounds, such as:
• alarms
• doorbells, and
• other important sounds
• guide dogs, which help those who are blind or visually impaired navigate safely
• psychiatric service animals, which help their handlers manage mental and emotional disabilities and can include behaviors like:
• 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 peanuts).

Neither the ADA nor New Mexico's Service Animal Act includes pets or companion animals.

Emotional Support Animals Under New Mexico Law

Emotional support animals (ESAs) may provide a sense of safety, companionship, and comfort to those with psychiatric or emotional conditions. Although these animals often have therapeutic benefits, ESAs aren't trained for specific tasks like service dogs, so the ADA's public accommodations law doesn't cover them. (Learn the differences between emotional support animals and psychiatric service dogs.)

New Mexico service animal law specifically excludes emotional support animals, comfort animals, and therapy animals that accompany people with disabilities but don't perform work or tasks for them and don't accompany them at all times.

But there are laws that protect your right to have an emotional support animal in your New Mexico rental housing. (See below.)

What Counts as a Public Accommodation in New Mexico?

In New Mexico, people with disabilities can be accompanied by their qualified service animals:

• on all common carriers (forms of transportation)
• to all public accommodations, and
• into all buildings open to the public. (N.M. Stat. § 28-11-3.)

The law doesn't further define what qualifies as a public accommodation. But New Mexico's White Cane Law entitles those with physical disabilities full and equal access to the following:

• all modes of transportation
• all hotels and lodging places
• all places of public accommodation
• all places of amusement or resort, and
• any other place to which the general public is invited.

The law also guarantees the rights of people who are totally or partially blind to have their trained guide dog in all of these places. (N.M. Stat. § 28-7-3.)

Under the ADA, the definition of public accommodations is very broad. (42 U.S.C § 12181(7).) It includes:

• hotels and other lodging establishments
• restaurants and other places that serve food and drink
• service establishments
• any place of public gathering, such as an auditorium or convention center
• gyms, parks, zoos, bowling alleys, and other places of exercise or recreation
• schools, libraries, museums, and other places where items are collected or displayed publicly, and
• social service centers.

Rules for Your Service Animal in New Mexico

The ADA and New Mexico 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. However, you might have to pay for any damage your animal causes.

Under the ADA, a public accommodation can't ask you questions about your disability or demand you show certification, identification, 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.

The ADA and New Mexico's Service Animal Act allow a public accommodation to exclude your service animal if it poses a direct threat to the health and safety of others. For example, if your dog is aggressively barking and snapping at other customers, the facility can kick the dog out. Your animal can also be excluded if it isn't housebroken or it's out of control and you're unable or unwilling to effectively control it.

Even if your service animal isn't allowed for one of the above reasons, you're still entitled to enter the public accommodation and make use of its facilities or services. (28 C.F.R. § 36.302(c)(3).)

Are Service Animals Allowed in New Mexico Housing?

New Mexico's Human Rights Act prohibits housing discrimination based on disability as long as the person's disability isn't related to his or her ability to rent or maintain the housing under consideration. (N.M. Stat. § 28-1-7G.) This law doesn't mention service animals, but New Mexico landlords must also comply with the federal Fair Housing Act.

The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination in housing accommodations against those who use assistance animals. You must be allowed full and equal access to all housing facilities and can't be charged extra for having a service animal (although you can be required to pay for damage your animal causes). If your lease or rental agreement includes a "no pets" provision, it doesn't apply to your assistance animal.

Under the FHA, housing facilities must also allow emotional support animals, if 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.

In other words, to qualify as an assistance animal under the FHA, your animal must perform tasks or services or alleviate the emotional effects of your disability.

If your need for an assistance animal isn't apparent, the FHA allows housing providers to ask for documentation of your disability or your need for the animal. So, a landlord can't ask a blind person to document the need for a guide dog but could ask a blind tenant to document the need for an emotional support rabbit.

Under the FHA, having an assistance animal in your home is considered a reasonable accommodation. Even so, if your assistance animal poses a threat to the health and safety of other people or property, the law allows it to be excluded. But the exclusion must be based on the animal's behavior, and not its size or breed.

(For more information, see the Department of Housing and Urban Development's page on assistance animals at HUD.gov.)