Library patrons are prohibited from bringing animals into any library facility, with the exception of service animals accompanying a person with a disability.

As defined in federal law, service animal is a dog or miniature horse that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. The work or tasks performed by a service animal must be directly related to the handler's disability.[1]

A staff member may ask anyone bringing an animal into a library the following questions if it is not readily apparent that the animal is a trained service animal:
• Is the animal a service animal required because of a disability? and/or
• What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?

Work or tasks include, but are not limited to:
• Assisting individuals who are blind or have low vision with navigation and other tasks;
• Alerting individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing to the presence of people or sounds.
• Pulling a wheelchair.
• Assisting an individual during a seizure.
• Alerting individuals to the presence of allergens.
• Retrieving items such as medicine or the telephone.
• Providing physical support and assistance with balance and stability to individuals with mobility disabilities.
• Helping persons with psychiatric and neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors.
• Providing safety checks for individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Functions that are not work or tasks include, but are not limited to:
• Crime deterrent effects of an animal's presence.
• The provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship (commonly referred to as “emotional support animals”).

While present at any library facility, a service animal shall be under the control of its handler. Usually this means the service animal must have a harness, leash, or other tether.

Anytime a service animal is behaving in a manner incompatible with the essential purposes of the library, and the handler does not take effective action to bring the service animal under control, staff will require that the animal be removed from the premises.

Incompatible behaviors include, but are not limited to:
• Barking/loud behavior.
• Urinating/defecating on the floor.
• Running away or otherwise leaving the side of the owner.
• Biting or other threatening actions such as growling, teeth bared, lunging on others besides animal owner.
• Damaging library property or the property of others.

1. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/chapter-I/part-35/subpart-B/section-35.136

Approved by: Gayathri Kanth, Library Director (Date: July 2025)
Approved as to form: Madeleine Salah, Deputy City Attorney