https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HB1369&year=2018&code=R

If I read that correctly (and admittedly I didn't read close), but it sounds like animals must be trained. It also looked like ESA's must be trained in order to be claimed as an ESA? It also appeared to be referring to just dogs, not any animal. So would this mean if you have a dog it has to be trained and no other type of ESA would need to be trained, or does it mean only dogs will be allowed to be claimed as an ESA now and it must be trained?

Many states, including MO, have passed or are considering legislation that makes it a crime to claim to have a service dog when it isn't one. None of them have been tested yet against the federal laws.

Where they will be eventually tested is when a dog in a SD vest acts out in public and the human handler is given a citation and has to prove the dog is a SD and that they need the dog.

I must be reading it differently than you are. From what I get from reading the text of the law, it has very little to do with Emotional Support Animals. It is all about Service Animals -- and then they go beyond that a bit by defining "service animal" to "include animals that provide support or therapeutic functions for individuals with psychiatric or mental disabilities."

But, they stick to the idea that the animal MUST BE TRAINED. So, they don't really mean ESAs at all.

It looks like the original version was only Service Animals and then someone tried to shoehorn some weird version of ESAs (that are "trained") and it was poorly done. TRAINED animals are Service Animals.

In any case, I don't see that this includes penalizing people for faking ESAs -- because it simply doesn't include ESAs at all. It refers only to animals TRAINED to perform a task -- which are, by definition, Service Animals.

- John...

Actually, I take that back. I was looking at the wrong bill. (You mentioned HB2031 in your subject -- which is a completely unrelated bill. Then you LINKED to HB1369 in your post -- which is about the stuff I mentioned above, but not related to penalties for faking ESAs. The bill you REALLY mean is HB2031, which you also mentioned. Sorry for the confusion there -- it's just that you mentioned or linked to 3 different bills!) :)

The one that you mentioned (FB2031) does indeed seem to include a penalty for people faking an "assistance animal" under the FHAA -- which is great!

Hope it goes through!

- John...

Correction: I meant that you mentioned HB2041 in your subject -- which is the completely unrelated bill.

Yeah we have a law like that. Nobody will enforce it. It's just a sign of the social degradation of our society.