28 CFR Part 35 Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in State and Local Government Services (2010 ADA Title II Regulations with amendments issued through Aug. 2016)

Other requirements. The NPRM also proposed that the regulation include the following requirements: that the work or tasks performed by the service animal must be directly related to the handler's disability; that a service animal must be individually trained to do work or perform a task, be housebroken, and be under the control of the handler; and that a service animal must have a harness, leash, or other tether. Most commenters addressed at least one of these issues in their responses. Most agreed that these provisions are important to clarify further the 1991 service animal regulation. The Department has moved the requirement that the work or tasks performed by the service animal must be related directly to the individual's disability to the definition of ‘‘service animal'' in § 35.104. In addition, the Department has modified the proposed language in § 35.136(d) relating to the handler's control of the animal with a harness, leash, or other tether to state that ‘‘[a] service animal shall have a harness, leash, or other tether, unless either the handler is unable because of a disability to use a harness, leash, or other tether, or the use of a harness, leash, or other tether would interfere with the service animal's safe, effective performance of work or tasks, in which case the service animal must be otherwise under the handler's control (e.g., voice control, signals, or other effective means).'' The Department has retained the requirement that the service animal must be individually trained (see Appendix A discussion of § 35.104, definition of ‘‘service animal''), as well as the requirement that the service animal be housebroken.