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Sources

Sources

The primary documents behind everything we say about federal and Texas law, with links to the originals.

Written byTexas ESA Letter editorial team · edited by Walter V. Short

Published March 4, 2024
Last updated July 30, 2026

Every factual claim about law or policy on this site traces to one of the documents below. They are primary sources wherever a primary source exists: the statute rather than a summary of it, the agency notice rather than a news article about it.

We link out to originals even though it sends you away from us, because a claim about federal or Texas law that you cannot check is not worth much. Where we disagree with the common reading of a source, we say so and explain why, as on the misdemeanor classification question.

Sources

  1. Assistance Animals Notice FHEO-2020-01: Assessing a Person’s Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing ActU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. January 28, 2020.
  2. Fact Sheet on HUD’s Assistance Animals NoticeU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2020.
  3. Human Resources Code, Chapter 121 — Participation in Social and Economic ActivitiesTexas Statutes. Includes § 121.002 definitions, § 121.003 discrimination, § 121.006 improper use of assistance and service animals.
  4. House Bill 4164, 88th Legislature, Regular Session — improper use and treatment of an assistance animal or service animal; increasing a criminal penaltyTexas Legislature Online. Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 757. Effective September 1, 2023.
  5. Traveling by Air with Service Animals — final ruleU.S. Department of Transportation, December 2, 2020. Removed 14 C.F.R. § 382.117 and stopped requiring airlines to recognize emotional support animals as service animals.
  6. Assistance Animals — fair housing training materialsTexas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and Texas Workforce Commission, Civil Rights Division.
  7. Animal Law research guide: Service AnimalsTexas State Law Library.
  8. Verify a License or Check License StatusTexas Behavioral Health Executive Council. Licenses psychologists, professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, and social workers in Texas.
  9. FAQs on Emotional Support AnimalsAnimal Legal & Historical Center, Michigan State University College of Law.

We cite primary sources wherever one exists. If you find something on this page that is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it and note the change.

How we use them

  • Statutes and regulations are cited by section, and linked to the official Texas Legislature or federal publication rather than a commercial mirror.
  • Agency guidance is cited by notice number and date, because guidance is replaced. HUD’s 2020 notice replaced its 2013 one, and anything relying on the older version is out of date.
  • We do not cite competitors. Commercial ESA sites are not authority, and several of them contradict the statutes they link to.
  • Dates matter. The air travel rule changed in 2021 and the Texas penalty changed in 2023. Any page that does not reflect both is stale.

Review schedule

Legal and clinical pages are reviewed at least every six months, and immediately when a source changes. Each page shows its publication date, last update and next scheduled review. Our editorial policy explains who does the reviewing and how corrections are handled.

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