<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Alecska, </div><div><br></div><div>I wanted to weigh in from the perspective of a former dog trainer. Emotional Support Animals (ESA) have zero training, zero testing, and zero requirements to be labelled as such. There's no official designation, licensing, or any other scrutiny placed on the animal. So people can (and frequently do) just call their untrained pet an ESA and ask for accommodation. You could pick up any animal and call it and ESA. There's nothing else to it.</div><div><br></div><div>As a result, these ESAs end up having significant negative interactions with actual service dogs on a very regular basis. Since the ESAs have no training, they can often be aggressive, domineering, anxious, and attack service dogs who are trained to ignore such distractions. They also don't have to be potty trained, or behaviour-tested and could easily go to the bathroom in your facility, attack patrons, or damage objects inside. As such, the vast majority of service dog users ask that people do not accommodate ESAs as it makes the task of a service dog significantly more difficult. Service dogs have been injured, or missed performing their tasks (causing seizures, diabetic ketoacidosis, etc. for their handler) because of being distracted by an ESA who's trying to bite, play, interact, etc..</div><div><br></div><div>I would strongly recommend, and most service dog users also recommend <b>not </b>making accommodations for ESAs. Not only do they lack any training or certification, they can be an active hazard to patrons, property, service dogs, and their handlers. </div><div><br></div><div>As a postscript, however, Psychiatric Service dogs are not ESAs. They are task trained and certified for people with psychiatric conditions. They have all the same training as a service dog, they're just providing service for a different medical condition.</div><div><br></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:12.8px"><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">Melissa Ratcliff</b></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">BC Society for the Museum of Original Costume (SMOC)</b><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px"><font size="2"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></span></p><div><p dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="verdana, sans-serif">1489 McRae Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V6H 1V1
</font></span></p><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:72pt">604-216-7662</span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:108pt"><a href="http://www.smoc.ca/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.smoc.ca</a></span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:1.38;text-indent:108pt">Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SMOCostume/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">@smocostume</a></span><br></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span style="text-indent:144px">Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/smocostume/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">@smocostume</a></span><br></font></div></div></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Apr 22, 2026 at 3:33 PM Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv <<a href="mailto:listserv@lists.museum.bc.ca">listserv@lists.museum.bc.ca</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg472375873152778043">
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Hello,</div>
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I was wondering if anyone has a policy or framework around Emotional Support Animals they could share? We already allow service and guide dogs but are looking if we can reasonably expand to include ESAs to make our space more accessible, as it has been requested
several times in the past.</div>
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<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">-- Alecska Divisadero (pronouns: she/her or they/them)</span></p>
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<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:black"><b>Operations & Venue Administrator</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:rgb(200,38,19)"><b>Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art</b></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:blue"><a href="mailto:operations@billreidgallery.ca" title="mailto:operations@billreidgallery.ca" style="color:blue;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" target="_blank"><u>operations@billreidgallery.ca</u></a></span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:black"> -
</span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:blue"><a href="http://www.billreidgallery.ca/" style="color:blue;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" target="_blank"><u>www.billreidgallery.ca</u></a></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:black;background-color:white">My office hours are usually Tuesday to Friday 12-5 pm but my schedule varies each week. As I am working part time and mostly remotely, reaching out by email
is best.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:black;background-color:white"><i>We respectfully acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl’il’wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and all the Indigenous peoples of
the Northwest Coast, on whose traditional and unceded territories we live and work.</i></span><span style="font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;color:rgb(36,36,36);background-color:white"> </span> </p>
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