england-and-wales animals
Must a registered service animal be of a certain species?
<p>Asking from England but interested in all jurisdictions.</p>
<p>Is there a list of species that can be registered as service animals or can any animal be potentially a service animal?</p>

<p>For purposes of the question, yes.</p>
<p>There are two definitions of service animal used in the UK. Some people deliberately conflate the two, which caused my confusion.</p>
<p>Service dogs are dogs trained to perform a specific role- seeing eye dogs for example. They are trained for months to strict guidelines. These guidelines seem to preclude an &quot;Airbud's Law&quot; situation allowing for a seeing-eye cat.</p>
<p>Service animals are protected by the law, preventing businesses from denying them entry.</p>
<p>Support animals are not governed by any such restrictions. There are a variety of sites that allow registration, of varying sketchiness. They allow a variety of species and there's no reason one could not own an emotional support hippo.</p>
<p>Support animals have no legal protections. This is where the confusion comes from- overentitled Karens insisting that they have the right to have their barely trained mutt bark at everyone when they go shopping. It is entirely legal for a business to refuse to allow such animals in.</p>
