Can Cats Be Service Animals?

The lines between service animals vs. emotional support animals vs. therapy animals are often blurry, and many people see no difference between these terms.

However, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) clearly defines the requirements and role of service animals.

Understanding the legal definitions, limitations, and protections is essential if you consider registering your pet as a service animal.

Cats Can Be Emotional Support Animals

Cats can’t perform complex physical tasks like service dogs. However, cats make excellent emotional support animals.

While both serve humans, people are often confused about the difference between service animals and emotional support animals.

Service animals are trained to perform specific tasks for physically or mentally impaired owners.

A service dog can help the owner with basic daily actions like crossing the road, retrieving clothing items, or opening and closing doors.

On the other hand, emotional support animals serve primarily as companions for the owner. They aren’t typically trained to perform any particular tasks but can help the owner deal with emotional distress.

One may argue that every pet provides emotional support to its owner, and that’s true. However, emotional support animals are prescribed to people diagnosed with mental conditions such as depression or anxiety by a doctor.

Many people wonder – can cats sense human feelings? In a way, yes. Cats have fine intuition and can recognize signals that humans can’t, such as slight changes in the tone of voice and body movements.

Numerous studies show that cats can sense anxiety, sadness, depression, and irritation in humans and react accordingly.

A cat’s purring vibrations have a soothing effect on humans, and hugging a soft and warm ball of fur can be very calming.

Unlike service animals, emotional support animals aren’t allowed in public places. The only exception is air travel, but the owner must receive a letter from a certified mental health professional.

Cats Can Be Therapy Animals

Apart from being emotional support animals, cats can serve as therapy animals. The difference between an emotional support animal and a therapy animal is the necessary training and who receives the support.

Unlike emotional support animals that help their owner, therapy animals help people in public places like hospitals and nursing homes. Therapy animals must pass an evaluation of their behavior and skills to get permission to enter the site.

Therapy animals are used in Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) and Animal-Assisted Activities Therapy (AAAT).

In the former case, people pet and play with a pet during physical therapy to develop motor skills. In the latter case, the pet only provides emotional support.

Permission to enter public places doesn’t mean that a therapy pet can accompany the owner anywhere. A therapy cat or another animal cannot enter restaurants, stores, or workplaces.

Cats as therapy animals can effectively reduce anxiety, depression, and OCD, lessen the feeling of loneliness, and improve heart health.

A critical difference between a service animal and a therapy animal is that therapy cat certification is carried out by third parties instead of governmental structures.

Organizations that train and register therapy animals are private and therefore have differing requirements.

A therapy animal must be gentle, affectionate, and intelligent. Some of the best cat breeds for therapy are Ragdolls, American Bobtails, Manx, Russian Blues, Burmese, and Abyssinian.

In contrast, British and Persian cats typically aren’t particularly communicative and may not like public spaces.

Legal Limitations & Protections

Cats often serve as emotional support and therapy animals, but can cats be certified service animals?

Unfortunately, the definition of a service animal under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) states that only dogs and miniature horses can play this role.

Other animals, including cats, cannot be legally considered service animals, even if they’re domesticated and trained. Without registration as a service animal, a pet can’t accompany its owner in public places.

The U.S. isn’t alone in prohibiting cats from being service animals. Canada, the U.K., and most European countries also don’t allow registering a cat as a service animal but enable people to keep cats as emotional support animals.

The good news is that people prescribed emotional support animals by a mental health professional don’t lack legal protections entirely.

For example, federal law prohibits housing providers from discriminating against people with emotional support animals under the Fair Housing Act (1968).

Simply put, a homeowner can’t refuse a prospective tenant to rent a property only because they need an emotional support animal.

Note that some states aren’t as strict regarding which pets can be service animals. For example, Alaska’s law states that a service animal refers to any animal assisting a physically impaired person by performing essential tasks.

Illinois legislation defines services animals as any animal trained in obedience and assisting a physically impaired person in one or more daily life activities. Indiana also doesn’t set a limit on which pets can be service animals.

So, although most states comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it’s always worth checking your state’s local legislation.

Why Can’t Cats Be Service Animals?

An explanation of why a cat can’t be a service animal and can’t be trained for complex tasks lies in feline nature. Comparing how dogs and cats hunt can help you understand why dogs are easier to train and are better at serving humans.

Dogs can track their prey for many miles. Historically, humans made dogs perform tricks, run courses, or sit in one spot without movement for long to catch the prey. In other words, dogs had to be persistent and creative.

In contrast, cats strive to preserve energy as much as possible during hunting. They don’t run after the prey for miles but track it silently until they get close and often kill it with a single attack.

Furthermore, small prey like mice doesn’t provide a lot of energy, and cats have to save it until the next hunting session.

The moral is that cats are unlikely to put in the effort if the return isn’t worth it and aren’t used to unconventional solutions.

Service dogs are willing to do anything for their owner even if they get no direct benefit. Meanwhile, cats will only do simple things that bring them instant returns, such as treats.

Tasks Cats Can Perform

Cats can’t be registered as service animals under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but this doesn’t mean that cats can’t help their impaired owners in any way.

Cats can learn dozens of commands, and the primary limitation is their physical abilities rather than intellect.

A cat can sit, stand, fall, or even make a flip by the owner’s command. But doing simple actions to get a treat and performing tasks to help the owner is a bit different.

The list of tasks cats can perform isn’t as impressive as the list of service dog tasks, but dedicated and patient owners can still learn their kitties to brig small items, close doors, and even turn lights on and off.

Simply put, cats can perform tasks that involve basic body movements and bring instant rewards but not lengthy tasks that require commitment.

Tasks Cats Can’t Perform

Service dogs can perform over 100 tasks, including unpacking groceries, carrying bags from the store, alerting a caretaker when the owner is unconscious, and applying a bandage to injured areas.

Unfortunately, cats can’t perform most of such tasks due to physical or intellectual limitations. So, are dogs smarter than cats? We hate to admit it, but yes.

Every feline owner considers their kitty to be the best, and cats undoubtedly aren’t dumb, but cats have twice fewer neurons in the brain than dogs.

For this reason, a cat can’t perform complex tasks. They can’t (or don’t want to) search the home for lost items, bring mail to the owner, or deliver receipts from cashier to handler.

Are Cats Easy To Train?

Cats can be trained; that’s a fact. But are cats easy to train? The answer depends on the task complexity and a cat’s personality.

Firstly, cats don’t respond well to punishment. Yelling, hitting, and otherwise scaring the cat will only diminish an owner’s ability to train their pet.

However, cats are happy to carry out tasks for rewards such as treats. In other words, the only way to train a cat is to bribe it.

As a rule of thumb, the earlier you start disciplining a cat, the higher the odds of it complying with training. Senior cats have already developed specific habits and are rarely willing to change them.

This doesn’t mean that training an adult cat is impossible, but the owner will have to invest significantly more effort.

Although each cat is unique, vets, breeders, and other feline lovers say that specific breeds are more receptive to disciplining.

The easiest cat breeds to train are allegedly Abyssinian, Bengal, American Shorthair, Japanese Bobtail, Ocicat, Siamese, and Somali.

Sources