Unpopular Opinion

6393 readers

34 users here now

Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!

How voting works:

Vote the opposite of the norm.

If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.

Guidelines:

Tag your post, if possible (not required)

If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].

Rules:

1. NO POLITICS

Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.

2. Be civil.

Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...

Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.

5. No trolling.

This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.

Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Emotional support dogs should be trained the same as Service Dogs (self.unpopularopinion)

submitted 1 year ago by kemsat to c/unpopularopinion

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Emotional support animals (ESAs) require no training, and ESAs are assigned to people who are not emotionally stable.

Dogs are also dangerous animals; it is known, and the reason for the use of dogs as guards & for personal protection. Dogs are also known to read their owners emotional distress, and assess what or who is causing the distress, then do something about the distress to help their owners. This is exactly why ESDs are used, but while extremely helpful & useful, to the dog’s owner, this behavior, when untrained, can be extremely dangerous to everyone who is not the dog’s owner. This danger is amplified when people around the dog are scared, or wary, of the dog, and further amplified if the owner is emotionally unstable.

This brings me to dog breeds; some are more dangerous than others, and some are less apt for the task/job of being an ESA. Therefore, if dog breeds that are dangerous or inept for the tasks of an ESD are not trained, and their owners are likely to be emotionally unstable: such ESDs, while essential to their owner, are a danger to everyone else.

Furthermore, it is hypocritical to expect the people around such ESDs to suffer emotional distress, as a result of the threatening ESD, for the sake of the ESD’s owner.

Thank you for reading my rant.

TLDR: Some dog breeds, if not all dogs, should be required to pass the same qualifications as a Service Dog in order to be registered & certified as Emotional Support Animals.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I dunno man, this is a fairly popular take overall, among people who are involved in emotional support training. Also among people doing service training. Also among people that have genuine need for an ESA.

There's a big movement to place greater limits on what kinds of animals can be ESA. Breed wise, if the training was done to the same standards as service dogs, or ponies, it wouldn't be an issue. Way more dogs wash out for behavioral incompatibilities with service than you think.

Hell, I've heard arguments for limiting ESAs to only dogs, though that isn't useful or necessary imo. As long as the animal is either small enough to not be an issue, or is one that can be trained to standards, it isn't like the kind of training necessary is dog exclusive. Dogs are just the best at it.

Anyway, the arguments you're making are well supported by anyone with exposure to the issue on a professional level, so I had to throw the downvote for being at least mostly popular. Sorry, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] kemsat 1 points 1 year ago

I don’t think it should only be dogs. I personally hate dogs, and find them to be unreliable. I’m not the only one, and if I legitimately needed an ESA, I would be unable to get one if they were only dogs.