Becoming-imperceptible: emotional support animals (ESAs) as a form of affective immanence

In this paper we question labor as a method to define human-animal relations, particularly with a contested companion animal category Emotional Support Animal (ESA). Unlike service animals, ESAs need not demonstrate the ability to do work or perform a task; most ESAs are companion animals who are not specifically trained. Some legal scholars favor recognition of labor performed by ESAs, such as affective labor and emotional support, in order to legitimize ESAs and lead to their greater acceptance. We argue that the concept of labor fails to capture the complexity of the human-ESA relationship and undermines the significance of relationships with animals who are not dogs. Our research looks to public comment on ESAs and interviews with humans with ESAs to contrast how relationships are perceived in terms of labor and performed without labor playing a major role. We draw upon Spinoza’s ethics – the ability to affect and be affected in turn – as a more viable practical and philosophical alternative, as well as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of becoming-animal, a non-hierarchical, molecular relationship that ultimately becomes a becoming-imperceptible, where human/animal relations discover a line of indiscernibility, a common form of haecceity that lacks concrete representation.