Montana state Sen. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, misses the cows he sold off and his dog that died last year.
“I used to pet my cows,” said Loge, who is now building a relationship with a new breed of emotional support animal. It’s a feral cat Loge named Blackie, and it’s never ventured closer than 8 feet away from him.
Blackie keeps his distance, but when Loge makes weekend trips home from the current Montana legislative session, he’s excited to see his feline friend prowling around his property.
Loge said he’s an animal lover, but also sensitive to the plight of landlords dealing with rapid growth in theexploding business of online certification of emotional support animals. Landlords are suspicious of the sites, worried they’ve become an unfair way to force property managers to accept tenants with pets.
According to the online ESA certification business Pettable, two thirds of ESA owners acquired their animals after March 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This triggered a surge in demand for online certification services.
Along with competing sites like CertaPet and esadoctors.com, Pettable provides certification letters with just a few clicks on its website — and a fee.
Woof News, an online pet news site, estimates the annual revenue for each of these online providers to be around $2 million. The cost of quickly receiving an ESA certification letter ranges from $150-$250.
Landlords Held Hostage
In 2023, Loge helped pass House Bill 703, which made it impossible for Montanans to quickly certify an ESA pet.
“Everybody wants to have an emotional support animal, and there's some that are justified and some are not,” Loge told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
HB 703 required health care professionals issuing ESA certifications to have an established client-provider relationship with a tenant at least 30 days prior to providing an ESA certification letter.
Health care providers must also complete a clinical evaluation to be sure the tenant requesting ESA certification really needs it.
“People just go online and find somebody that says, ‘Oh, well, we'll give you the OK to have an emotional support animal.’ We're trying to make it a little more professional than that,” said Loge, who is now sponsoring updates to Montana’s ESA law.
His new ESA legislation — Senate Bill 149 — seeks to tighten the rules even further, adding language to the law stating any ESA certification, “must include information from a health care practitioner who has personal knowledge of the tenant's disability.”
Loge also wants to protect landlords from being forced to accept what they consider unacceptable pets.
“It gives the landlord a little bit of an out, rather than somebody just saying, ‘I need an emotional support animal and my animal is a snake,’” said Loge, adding that under the current law, landlords might be forced to accept a Shetland pony as an ESA in a studio apartment.
“Emotional support covers pretty much any animal,” said Loge, who gets support from a cat he can’t pet. He said he sympathizes with those who truly need ESA certification, but doesn’t want it “just pulled out of the air.”
SB 149 remains tied up in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Loge didn’t anticipate much opposition when the bill gets a committee hearing.
Easier In Wyoming
Under the headline “How to Get an Emotional Support Animal in Wyoming,” the online company CertaPet offers a free five-minute screening process.
After that, “CertaPet can then connect you with a licensed mental health professional in Wyoming. You can then get your ESA letter within two business days. Simple!”
Pettable, like CertaPet, also offers a quick turnaround on ESA letters for Wyoming residents.
After logging on, those seeking an ESA certification letter navigate several screens on Pettable.com. They are reassured that ESA letters cover Airbnbs, dorm rooms and vacation homes, in addition to apartments and other long-term rental properties.
Pettable claims its ESA certification letters are compliant with the federal Fair Housing Act, and for residents of Wyoming, a required consultation with a health care professional can be scheduled within 24 hours for an upcharge of $50. That’s in addition to the $199 cost of the ESA certification letter.
As customers continue to navigate toward online certification, they are asked a series of questions about how often they’ve demonstrated signs of depression and anxiety.
“Over the past two weeks, how often have you felt afraid or panicked?” asks the Pettable online questionnaire. After answering “rarely” to all the questions, Cowboy State Daily was approved for online ESA certification.
In a follow up email from Pettable, the company stated, “You are a great candidate for an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) Letter consultation.” It then asked for a credit card number.
Next, while attempting to buy ESA certification for a residence in Montana, the process became more difficult.
A new screen on the Pettable site stated that to comply with Montana law, “Pettable will refer you to a licensed clinician and your professional relationship will start on the day of your first consult.”
It then stated the clinician will provide a follow up appointment and final consultation.
Finally, according to Pettable, “30 days after the first consult, your clinician will then legally be allowed to write and sign an ESA letter.”
Legislator’s Son Has A Support Snake
In a Senate Local Government Committee hearing Monday for the proposed “Working Animal Protection Act,” Sen. Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus, introduced the committee to his son’s emotional support animal.
“I have a child that's on the spectrum, and he has a pet ball python named Monty,” said Mandeville. “Monty is very cuddly. They get along great. Sometimes when my son is having an issue, as kids with this issue tend to have, he'll just go and hold a snake and it really calms him down.”
Mandeville described how as Monty constricts while his son is holding the snake, that pressure essentially offers a reassuring hug.
“Having that pressure of a constrictor, it's really good for him,” said Mandeville, who wondered if the “Working Animal Protection Act” would prevent municipalities from zoning out ESAs like Monty.
“Would this bill protect Monty?” asked Mandeville.
Sen. Ellie Boldman, D-Missoula, said under the proposed working animal law, “I don't understand why he wouldn't be able to define that as a working animal for his son.”
Specific language in SB 96 states that, “‘Working animal’ means a nonhuman animal used for the purpose of performing a specific duty,” including “human service.”
Other language in the bill seemed to open the possibility of live animal exhibitions. One legislator wondered if the bill might bring the unintended consequence of legalizing live alligator demonstrations in city parks.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
