It’s December 24th, the first day of winter break for the Smith family. After a tiring semester of work and school, they are excited for a long-awaited family outing to the Botanical Gardens. Normally they would spend the holiday with extended family and friends, but the ongoing pandemic has thwarted these plans. 

Fourteen year old Tom Smith was the most excited for this adventure. He had been isolated and hadn’t gone outside as much due to COVID-19. This outing would be one of his first stimulating adventures since the start of the pandemic.While going through these struggles, he is able to occupy his time with birding. Tom knows many species of birds and their migration patterns. He finds solace in watching birds in Central Park, which he has been doing since age ten. Central Park has a vast but tight knit community of birders, and Tom is proud to be one of them. 

Tom has a particular bird that is very near and dear to him, Rosemary. She is a two year old chicken who has been living in the Smith’s one bedroom apartment since she was rescued. Rosemary flew into a stranger’s apartment when she was a chick, and had the Smiths not adopted her, she would’ve been sent to a kill shelter. Chickens are flock animals, and the Smiths are Rosemary’s flock. She needs to be involved in everything they do. If they are having a family dinner that doesn’t involve her, she will stamp her feet on the floor until she is given some of their food. Despite them living in such a confined space in Manhattan with two parakeets, a fish, a pigeon, and a chicken, each and every animal gets the utmost amount of love and co-exists in a thriving ecosystem. 

Rosemary is not only the family’s beloved pet, but she is also Tom’s emotional support animal. One wouldn’t normally see a chicken as an emotional support animal, but Rosemary redefines the concept of what can be an emotional support animal. 

“Based on professional literature and Tom Smith’s report, an emotional support animal might greatly ameliorate the debilitating nature of his disability,” Tom’s doctor explained. “I have therefore recommended an emotional support animal to assist him in coping with his disability.” 

Whenever Tom gets stressed or anxious, he cuddles her. Due to Rosemary’s ability to calm Tom down in almost every situation, he brings her everywhere possible. Unfortunately, most places don’t allow animals, let alone a chicken. Since Rosemary is now officially an emotional support animal, the Smith’s thought that bringing her along to the Botanical Gardens Holiday Train Show would be “a breeze”.  

The morning of the trip, Toms called the Gardens to make sure emotional support animals were allowed. The person who answered the phone affirmed this assumption, and assured that all emotional support animals were allowed, even chickens. 

Additionally, the Botanical Gardens Website states, “[Although] the Brooklyn Botanic Garden does not allow visitors to bring pets into the Garden. The Garden does allow service animals onto the premises, consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and NYC Human Rights Law.” 

The next morning, the Smith’s and Rosemary were packed into their car, ready for a fun day at the Gardens. Upon arriving at the very first checkpoint where security checks their tickets, they were told pets were not allowed in. The Smiths told the security that Rosemary was a service animal and they have the papers to prove it. Thus, they were allowed through the first level of security with Rosemary. 

They were about to walk into the train show, Rosemary in arms, when the security manager for the train show was running towards them. A large group of security and police with bullet proof vests surrounded Jane, Tom’s mother, and requested to see Tom who had already entered the train show. Jane retrieved Tom and showed them the papers that proved Rosemary was indeed Tom’s emotional support animal and the security let them through. One of the police officers even pet Rosemary. 

After having a nice but brisk walk through the train show, they were greeted by the head of all security for the Botanical Gardens, Jerry M. Ordonez. Ordonez told them that they had to leave because animals were not allowed. At this point, the Smiths were very upset because they had called ahead and gotten through two levels of security just to be stopped again. Like before, they explained Rosemary was Tom’s emotional support animal, but the head of security wasn’t having it, even though they had the papers to prove it. The head of security said that he wasn’t kicking them out, but Rosemary had to wait in the car.   

Jane wasn’t going to have Rosemary wait alone in the car for hours, so in the end they decided to leave. The company that Jane and Bob, Tom’s father, work for had paid for the tickets, but that doesn’t mean precious time and memories weren’t lost in the process. 

Tom had been looking forward to this trip, especially since Rosemary would be accompanying them. Without Rosemary, he wouldn’t have been able to go. They thought bringing her would be easy, afterall, what’s the point of having an emotional support animal you can’t bring places with you. Unfortunately, this excitement was cut short.

“He was disappointed that they were being forced to leave,” Jane said. “Especially since we had traveled all the way there and had been given permission in advance. It was disappointing at all stages. It was embarrassing because they were basically harassing us. It was embarrassing that the security had to follow us out as if we committed a crime.”

The Smiths are a five person family with a chicken, yet the security team at the Botanical Gardens proceeded like they were major threats to security. Rosemary was also very calm the entire time, didn’t move from Tom’s arms and watched everything peacefully. Rosemary is known by frequent Central Park goers, children and adults love her. She has never been a danger to anyone, she has always been calm and sweet to everyone she meets, including the security guards at the Botanical Gardens. 

The Smiths have nothing against the botanical gardens. 

“Our issue is that she was an emotional support animal for a child that wanted to experience the holiday spirit of going to the train show” they explained. “Thanks to Covid [Tom’s] ability to interact with other people has been limited. The holiday train show was a beacon of his ability to interact with nature. Covid has been a very hard strain on his emotional well being and this trip with Rosemary was supposed to alleviate some of this stress.”

Emotional support animals are quintessential to children through these tough times. While a chicken might not be the most conventional support animal, Rosemary has helped Tom and the whole Smith family immensely. Tom is an ambassador of seeing a chicken through different eyes. Rosemary has even encouraged him and his siblings to adopt a vegetarian diet.

“Kids have been drawn to the venues of the guidance of animals like a chicken to help with dealing with social emotional needs that have been taken away because of Covid, and the social vacuum of not being outside,” explained Bob.

 Rosemary has been one of many animals assisting children in coping with the social boundaries of the pandemic. She has inspired Tom to study the injustices in the chicken industry, and widen his knowledge about the environment. No one should have to go through the amount of grief and trouble to get a certified emotional support animal into a venue that has multiple sources stating they accept all types of emotional support animals. The moral of the story is: all emotional support animals (including emotional support chickens) should be allowed in the Botanical Gardens.