Pet Partners Program

Registration Tips

Delta Society's Pet Partners Program trains volunteers and screens volunteers and their pets for visiting animal programs in hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, schools and other facilities.
Pet Partners Program was established in 1990 to ensure that "both ends of the leash," people as well as animals, were well-prepared to participate in animal-assisted activity and animal-assisted therapy programs. Pet Partners is the only national registry that requires volunteer training and screening of animal/handler teams.
Delta's national network links volunteers with facilities in their own communities that request visiting pets and helps Pet Partners contact facilities to begin visits in new locations.
Over 10,000 Pet Partners teams now operate in all 50 states and 11 other countries, helping more than 1,000,000 people each year. See what Pet Partners are doing in your area!

Therapy Animals Are Not Service Animals

Many people are under the mistaken impression that therapy animals and their handlers have the same rights of access as people with disabilities and their service animals. In some cases, people have their animals evaluated and registered as therapy animals with the intention of insisting on access to public spaces with their animals, as if the animal were a service animal. They may be trying to have their animals accompany them on airplanes, in stores, or in restaurants that have "no pets/animals" policies. Essentially, this is fraudulent and, in many areas, illegal. Unless the handler meets the definition of a person with a disability and the animal meets the definition of a service animal, the team has no more rights of access than a person with a companion animal or pet.

Delta Society will not tolerate Pet Partners who fraudulently pass off their therapy animals as service animals.

For information about service animals, please refer to the following: