The increasing number of apartment owners seeking to keep purported “emotional” or “therapy” dogs in no-pet buildings appears to be unstoppable, notwithstanding well-documented evidence that the presence of such dogs can cause severe adverse allergic reactions and psychological trauma to other apartment owners—who may well have purchased apartments in a no-pet building so as to protect themselves from such risks to their health and well-being. See Ronda Kaysen, “Why Are Emotional Support Pets Allowed in My Pet-Free Building?” The New York Times (July 21, 2018); “The unstoppable Rise of the Emotional Support Animal,” Habitat Magazine (July 24, 2018).

New York state, as well as at least 16 other states, recently enacted laws which criminalize the fraudulent designation of a therapy dog, in an effort to deter individuals from “mis-labeling” their pets in order to evade legal restrictions on where animals are permitted, including a building’s no-pet policy. Tiffany Lee, “Criminalizing Fake Service Dogs: Helping or Hurting Legitimate Handlers,” 23 Animal Law 325 (2017).

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