My dog is a registered emotional support animal and I am…

This is an ADA issue which is Federal, however there may be state specific laws your co-worker is violating. I am an attorney in NC. I would recommend modifying your question and adding the state so an attorney barred in that state will respond.

I’m sorry to hear about your issues here, hopefully, we can solve them quickly.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides important protections for people with disabilities in the workplace. Specifically, Title I of the ADA prohibits disability discrimination in the employment context and affirmatively requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees.

The ADA has several components: Title I covers employment relationships while Title III concerns public accommodations. Title III has specific regulations addressing the use of service animals by customers in places of public accommodation, such as retail stores, restaurants, museums, schools, and healthcare settings. Those regulations explain that only trained dogs and miniature horses may qualify as “service animals” that must be accommodated in the public sphere.

Pure emotional support animals typically are not considered “service animals” under Title III because they are not necessarily trained to perform a task for the patron that relates to his or her disability—though certain psychiatric service animals performing defined tasks make the distinction “fuzzier.”

In the workplace context, however, there are no comparable limitations. Title I does not define the term “service animal,” and there is no administrative guidance concerning an employer’s duty to accommodate an employee by permitting the use of either service or emotional support animals. As such, the usual rules governing reasonable accommodations apply by default.

So the biggest problem here is emotional support animals are not covered like service dogs in terms of disabilities and your employer's duty to honor that.

If another employee is harassing your ESA that you are allowed to bring to work then you should go to your employer to try to enforce that against the other employee.

However, I'm not aware of any cause of action that you can sue your co-worker for harassing your ESA dog. There are no laws that cover ESa animals in the workplace to protect you, to begin with; your employer simply accommodated you when you asked and said yes.

You should go back to your employer and report this harassment. They should take action against this other employee or fire them if needed. But in terms of the law, there are really no protections for ESAs in the workplace, only service animals.

If you are being harassed by another employee you may need to take that to an employment lawyer just as if any other employee was harassing you for any other issue. But it really has nothing to do with any ESA since those are not protected at work under any law.

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I hope my response has fully answered your question. If you have any follow-up inquiries, reply to this message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Is there anything else you would like to know about the law regarding this particular issue? I'm here to help, so please feel free to ask any additional questions you may have.

It goes back to the problem you have no ESA rights at your workplace. Federal law simply does not cover that, only service animals.

There is not much you can do about that other than complain to your employer to take action aginst him or get some type of restraining order against him in civil court.

ESA is not a catch-all for everything. It is mainly for housing. The federal law only covers service animals that are to do tasks that disabled people need to function, like a seeing-eye dog.

Under the ADA, your employer is required to provide its employees with reasonable accommodations and cannot discriminate against employees with disabilities. However, a reasonable accommodation at work does not apply to support animals only to service dogs.

You would have to call your Congressman and see about asking for them to propose a federal law change in Congress.

I'm sorry but I do not make the laws to ask that question, Congress does. I have no control over what federal law says. I can only tell you how it reads currently. Lawyers do not make the laws.

I understand that delivering news that is not in your favor can be difficult. As an attorney, my job is to provide you with accurate information based on the law, even if it's not the news you were hoping for. I apologize if my response wasn't the outcome you were looking for, but I hope the information I've shared will help you make informed decisions.

As discussed, you would have to bring this to your employer and if they gave you a reasonable accommodation to have your ESA there then ask them to enforce the rules against him and keep him away from you. Or they could fire him if in violation of some work rule(s).

But having an ESA at work is not covered by any law to take direct action for. The best you could do is a restraining order against him to stay away from you.