Actually, the growing trend these days is that animals are given to people who have severe emotional issues. It's considered as therapy. It takes some hoop jumping but you can get a service animal for that. Certified and everything.

Are those paid for through a program?

Yeah, you still have to pay to take care of the dog, but they usually have a list of local doctors and places that do things at reduced costs. And it's tax deductible because the dog is working for the person, so their care is an expense you can claim.

They are not a service animal. Service animals must be trained with a task or work to mitigate a disability. (Just "mitigating anxiety by being present" does not count.) Service animals are ONLY dogs as covered by the ADA, with the exception of limited access for service mini horses. Service animals have access rights in public places.

An emotional support animal, on the other hand, can be any species, and does not need to be trained in tasks that mitigate the disability -- just being present counts. ESAs do NOT have public access rights, but they do have HOUSING rights (fair housing act; this means if your apartment is no pets, you can still have an ESA) and they have airplane rights (they can travel with you in the cabin without a carrier).

There is NO certification body for either of these. Anyone who claims to certify in order to make it an accepted SD or ESA is basically a scam. There are programs; however, programs are no more valid than privately trained service animals. Some programs are good, some programs are very bad, and turn out very poorly trained dogs.

HOWEVER, you do require a doctor's note for plane and housing rights for the ESA, usually. This is given directly to your landlord. You only need this if your apartment says "no pets", or for flying with our ESA. For flying, of course, the ESA must be extremely well trained.

However, even if your animal is a SD or an ESA, food is not going to be covered. No programs cover food expenses. Some cover equipment expenses (i.e. harnesses for people who need mobility support). In most cases, the dogs themselves from programs cost anywhere from $1000 - $10,000.

You CAN write off SD expenses as medical expenses for tax purposes. They are considered Durable Medical Equipment, the same as an oxygen tank or wheelchair, and thus covered for tax purposes. ESAs are NOT something you can write off for tax purposes.

If anyone has any further questions, I'm well-versed in the laws regarding SDs and ESAs, and have had an SD in the past and will be getting another in the future.

As to food help -- there are food banks for pets in some areas. However, you'll need to check for all those programs. They are not always reliable however -- some will only have enough food for everyone asking SOME of the time. plus, the often-changing diet (because you can't control what you get) can cause tummy upset, and dealing with dog or cat diarrhea is no fun.

That's not the only expense though. Veterinary costs are going to run into the hundreds for a dog or cat yearly. That's just checkups and vaccinations. Even with low cost spays/neuters and vaccines, medical expenses can come up. If they need emergency treatment, you're looking at thousands. And right now, paying into insurance for pets doesn't pay back the same amount, so it's generally better to just set that money aside, rather than paying it into an insurance program.

Another option is a small animal, however. Rats are extremely cheap to keep, very cuddly and personable, and have cheaper start-out costs, for example. Guinea pigs as well. Rats eat grains, dog food (but very little of it, because they're so small), and a small amount of fruits and veggies, and rat blocks. Guinea pigs eat mostly hay, but also need fresh fruits and veggies daily (they need vitamin C like humans), and hay pellets (no grain). Both should be kept in same-sex pairs. So overall they eat very small amounts and are cheap to keep. The cages for either will start out around 100 to 200 dollars for the proper size, though. This is about comparable to getting a dog or cat, because they need to be fixed (spayed/neutered). However, rats and guinea pigs, if kept in same-sex pairs, do not need to be fixed.

However, any pet you get you MUST make sure you have enough money to cover the cost of food and possible vet emergencies. That said, if you do your homework, you can find vets that take payments, programs that reduce the cost, etc. Just make sure you can handle all of this, and a pet can make a huge difference in your life! I don't mean to be discouraging, just realistic.

Annemarie is right. Cats can be fed on a meat diet for much cheaper than they can be fed a commercial diet. However you absolutely MUST insure your pet is getting a complete diet -- just rice and chicken, for example, is not an adequate diet. Commercial diets emulate all the nutrients dogs and cats get from eating whole prey. Human cuts (just muscle) will not be enough.

This is a GREAT site on feeding cats: link It has a raw diet recipe for cats that is very healthy. The main expense is a meat grinder.

i once bought cat food with food stamps once lol i gave it a try and was shocked it worked. i then tried again but i couldnt. the lady was like nah cant buy animal products lol