# ESA Letter in Riverton, WY: The Bar That Needs No Animal

> An ESA letter in Riverton answers two Wyoming statutes at once: W.S. 35-13-201(a)(iii) bars disability discrimination with no animal named at all.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/riverton/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-09-10
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 10,953
- Households renting: 44.9%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): No Wyoming cap
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Building-set, no limit
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Nearly half of Riverton's households rent

Riverton has **4,190** occupied homes, and **1,880** of them are rented.
That is **44.9 percent**: the third-highest renter share of the twenty
Wyoming cities tracked here, in a town of **10,953** people. Statewide the
figure is **28.2 percent**. The Census Bureau puts a margin of ± 203 on the
renter count, so the share shifts a little either way; it does not shift
anywhere near the state average.

Median gross rent in Riverton is **$921 ± $94**, below the **$992** Wyoming
median. And this Fremont County town of under eleven thousand is **eighth of
the twenty** on the raw number of renting households, more renting families
than Evanston or Green River, both larger places.

A market where nearly half the households rent is one where the leasing
decision *is* the housing decision, and worth knowing exactly how many ways
Wyoming law says it may not be made.

## The subsection with no animal in it

Most people looking for Wyoming's assistance-animal law find one sentence
and stop. There are two.

The first is **W.S. 35-13-201(a)(iii)**, and it never mentions an animal. A person with a
disability, it says, "shall not be discriminated against in the leasing or rental of apartments and
other private residential property because of his disability."

That is the whole rule. No animal, no training, no request, no letter. The
prohibited reason is the disability itself. If a Riverton application is
accepted, then withdrawn once a disability comes up, the animal never has to
enter the conversation for that subsection to be engaged.

## The other subsection, and what it adds

**W.S. 35-13-201(c)** is the animal-specific door: a person "shall not be discriminated against in
the leasing or rental of residential property because the person has an assistance animal, which
shall be permitted in leased or rented residential property in accordance with the federal Fair
Housing Act."

Note what (c) does that (a)(iii) does not. It names a permission: the animal "shall be permitted"
— rather than only forbidding a reason. It also carries a second sentence putting the tenant on the
hook "for any damage done by his assistance animal to the premises." A Riverton landlord who raises
damage is raising something the statute already dealt with, in the tenant's favour on the front end
and the landlord's on the back.

## One refusal, two possible wrongs

A refusal that follows the disclosure of a disability sits under
**(a)(iii)** whether or not an animal was ever discussed. A refusal that
turns on the animal sits under **(c)**. And a refusal that does both (the
common case, where a support animal is named in an accommodation request and
the tenancy dies immediately after) sits under both subsections at once.

That matters because a landlord's stated reason is often not the reason. "We filled the unit"
closes off nothing under (a)(iii) if the timing says otherwise. Two doors means a tenant is not
stuck arguing about the animal when the animal was never the point.

## One document supports both doors

**W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv)** defines an "assistance animal" as one that works, provides assistance or
performs tasks for a person with a disability, "or provides emotional support that alleviates one
(1) or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability."

Read that second branch closely. It turns on **a disability** and on
**identified symptoms or effects** of it. There is no training requirement
anywhere in it. So the professional findings that establish an assistance
animal under (c) are the same findings that establish a disability under
(a)(iii), and one properly written document carries both.

That definition reaches housing because the section opens "**As used in this article**," and
W.S. 35-13-201 sits in the same article. Not every state in this corpus did either.

## What the Fair Housing Act stacks on top

Wyoming enacted its own Fair Housing Act in 2015, at Title 40, chapter 26. **W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii)**
makes discrimination include "a refusal to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies,
practices or services if the accommodation may be necessary to afford the individual equal
opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling." A Riverton building's no-pets rule is a rule; the
accommodation is an exception carved into it.

The Act defines disability at **W.S. 40-26-102(a)(v)** as "a mental or physical impairment that
substantially limits at least one (1) major life activity, a record of this impairment, or being
regarded as having this impairment." **42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)** runs underneath all of it.

The limits are worth naming honestly. **W.S. 40-26-107(f)** removes the duty where
the tenancy would be "a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals" or "would
result in substantial physical damage to the property of others." Some small Riverton landlords
also fall inside the exemptions at **W.S. 40-26-110**, but **W.S. 40-26-113(b)** says the chapter
"does not affect a requirement of nondiscrimination in any other state or federal law," which is
precisely why both doors in W.S. 35-13-201 stay open regardless.

## Both doors open onto the same room

Neither door leads to a Wyoming agency, and a Riverton renter should know that up front.
**W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii)** defines the Act's "enforcing authority" as an entity HUD has accepted —
and in January 2025 the Wyoming Advisory Committee to the **U.S. Commission on Civil Rights**
reported that the Governor "has not yet assigned enforcement authority of the Wyoming Fair Housing
Act to any state or local entity." The same report found Wyoming residents "are required to submit
their complaint to the HUD's Denver Regional Office in the neighboring state of Colorado."

What is live is a court. **W.S. 40-26-139** allows a civil action in
district court within two years of the occurrence or termination of the
practice, with no complaint to exhaust first, and **W.S. 40-26-140** lets a
court award actual and punitive damages, fees and costs. **W.S. 40-26-143**
runs both ways (fees to the prevailing party, costs against the
nonprevailing one), and anybody in Riverton weighing a filing should read it
first.

There is also a criminal provision, **W.S. 35-13-203(a)**, which reaches "any place or facility
referenced in W.S. 35-13-201(a) through (c)", both doors, as a misdemeanor with a fine of not
more than $750. It is charged by a county or district attorney. It gives a tenant no private
remedy and no damages, and no Wyoming prosecution of a landlord under it was located.

## Making the request in Riverton

Put it in writing, and keep the copy. Name the accommodation you want, say
the animal alleviates identified symptoms or effects of a disability, and
attach the documentation. You are not asking for a favour; you are invoking
W.S. 35-13-201(c) and W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii).

Notice what none of those provisions asks for. Not a registry entry, not a
certificate, not an ID card, not a vest. Nothing sold online has any
standing under any of them. W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv) asks for identified
symptoms and a professional who identified them, and that is a different
kind of thing entirely.

## Where to get help in Fremont County

The **Cheyenne Housing Authority** runs the Housing Choice Voucher office
covering Lander and Riverton, reachable at **(307) 332-2746**. It is a CHA
voucher office rather than a separate local authority, and voucher tenants
have the same accommodation rights as anyone else. **Volunteers of America
Northern Rockies** works on housing services here. **Legal Aid of Wyoming**
takes housing questions, and the **Protection and Advocacy System (Wyoming
P&A)** is the state's disability-rights organisation. The right first call
when a refusal is about disability rather than about the animal.

## Two doors, one document

Both subsections of W.S. 35-13-201 rest on the same two professional
findings named in W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv). One is that a disability exists.
The other is that this particular animal alleviates symptoms or effects of
it that someone qualified has actually **identified**. Neither subsection
asks for more than that pair, and neither will work on less.

If a provider already treats you, that relationship beats any substitute and
should get the first phone call. Then weigh the friction honestly:
specialist mental-health capacity in Wyoming thins out fast beyond Cheyenne,
Casper and Laramie, a new-patient slot reachable from a town this size can
sit weeks out, and a provider who has met you twice may quite properly
decline to put in writing a disability finding they have had no chance to
assess. That is professional caution, not an obstacle.

When that route is unavailable or too slow, a licensed evaluation covers the
same ground on a schedule you can plan around: a licensed professional
examines whether the disability is present, whether this animal answers an
identified part of it, and records what they found: including, sometimes,
that they found nothing. An assessment capable of ending in no is the only
kind whose yes is worth carrying to a landlord.

Two doors in one statute. One document, provided a real assessment stands
behind it.

## What Riverton landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it may be necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling: W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii).
- Cannot discriminate in the leasing or rental of residential property because the person has an assistance animal, W.S. 35-13-201(c). Wyoming defines that animal to include one that provides emotional support, at W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv).
- Cannot treat an assistance animal as a pet for the purpose of a deposit or a monthly charge. Wyoming's landlord-tenant statute says nothing about animals at all, so the charge comes off under W.S. 40-26-107(b) and (c)(ii) and 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f) rather than under a deposit rule.
- Cannot discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges of a rental, or in the services and facilities provided with it, because of disability: W.S. 40-26-107(b). This is the provision that reaches recurring pet rent.
- Cannot require training, certification or registration of an assistance animal. W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv)'s emotional-support branch has no training element, and no Wyoming registry exists.
- Cannot interfere with the rights in W.S. 35-13-201(a) through (c), doing so is a misdemeanor under W.S. 35-13-203(a), with a fine of up to $750.
- Cannot keep a deposit without delivering a written itemization within thirty days of termination, or fifteen days after receiving the renter's new mailing address, whichever is later: W.S. 1-21-1208(a).
- Cannot take a nonrefundable deposit silently. W.S. 1-21-1207 requires the rental agreement to state that a portion is nonrefundable and requires written notice when it is taken.

**Can:**
- May hold the tenant liable for damage the assistance animal actually does to the premises, W.S. 35-13-201(c) says so expressly. That is a bill for real damage, not a charge in advance.
- May take a further thirty days to return a deposit if there is damage to the unit, making sixty days lawful in that case, W.S. 1-21-1208(a).
- May decline where the tenancy would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others or would result in substantial physical damage to the property of others, W.S. 40-26-107(f).
- May be outside the Wyoming Fair Housing Act's disability duty if the building holds four families or fewer and the owner lives in one of them, W.S. 40-26-110(b) exempts sections 40-26-105 through 40-26-109. W.S. 35-13-201(c) and the federal Act are not switched off by it.
- May charge a nonrefundable pet deposit to a tenant with an ordinary pet, with no cap in dollars or months, provided it is disclosed. Wyoming sets no deposit ceiling anywhere.

## How to get an ESA letter in Riverton

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Riverton. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for Wyoming clients who reviews your situation in a telehealth evaluation. (Telehealth evaluation)
3. **Complete your evaluation**, The professional evaluates whether an emotional support animal alleviates symptoms of a condition recognized in the DSM-5. Honest evaluations, not everyone qualifies. (Most of Our Applicants Qualify)
4. **Receive your signed letter**, Your letter arrives on the professional's letterhead with their license number: the documentation Wyoming landlords may lawfully request. (Typically within days of approval)
5. **Send it to your landlord**, Submit the letter with a short reasonable-accommodation request. Pet fees, pet deposits, and breed limits no longer apply to your animal in Riverton. (Protection under FHA + state law)

## Conditions that can qualify for an ESA

No fixed government list exists. A licensed professional evaluates whether an animal alleviates symptoms of a DSM-5-recognized condition, commonly:

- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Major depressive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Bipolar disorder
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Phobias with housing impact
- Chronic stress affecting daily function

## Housing help in Riverton

- [Cheyenne Housing Authority - Housing Choice Voucher offices](https://www.cheyennehousing.org/contact-us) (local housing authority)
- [Volunteers of America Northern Rockies](https://www.voanr.org/) (housing services)
- [Legal Aid of Wyoming - Housing](https://www.lawyoming.org/housing) (legal aid)
- [Protection and Advocacy System, Inc. (Wyoming P&A)](https://www.wypanda.com/programs-and-services) (disability rights)

## Frequently asked questions

### A Riverton landlord turned me down after I mentioned my disability, and the animal never came up. Do I have anything?

Yes, and it is the subsection almost nobody reads. W.S. 35-13-201(a)(iii) says a person with a disability "shall not be discriminated against in the leasing or rental of apartments and other private residential property because of his disability." There is no animal in that sentence, no accommodation request, no documentation requirement - the prohibited reason is the disability itself. An assistance animal is what subsection (c) is about. Subsection (a)(iii) stands on its own, and a Riverton tenancy that ends the day a disability is disclosed engages it whether or not an animal was ever discussed.

### If W.S. 35-13-201(a)(iii) already protects me, what does subsection (c) add?

Two things. First, (c) is affirmative rather than prohibitive: an assistance animal "shall be permitted in leased or rented residential property in accordance with the federal Fair Housing Act," so it grants a permission instead of only forbidding a reason. Second, it covers the refusal that is genuinely about the animal, where the landlord raises no objection to the tenant at all. Most Riverton disputes touch both. A support animal named in a written request, followed by a lease that does not happen, sits under (a)(iii) and (c) at the same time.

### Does one letter really support both claims?

It does, because of how Wyoming built the definition. An assistance animal under W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv) includes one providing emotional support that eases "identified symptoms or effects" of a disability - a test resting on the disability and on symptoms somebody has identified, never on training. The findings that make the animal an assistance animal under subsection (c) are therefore the same findings that establish the disability subsection (a)(iii) protects. One properly written document, produced from an actual assessment, answers both.

### Which housing authority covers Riverton, and does using a voucher change anything?

Riverton has no housing authority of its own. The Housing Choice Voucher office covering Lander and Riverton is run by the Cheyenne Housing Authority and answers at (307) 332-2746; it is a CHA voucher office, not a separate local authority. That distinction matters mainly for who you are actually writing to. It changes nothing about the rights themselves: a voucher household in Riverton has the same claim under W.S. 35-13-201(a)(iii) and (c), and the same reasonable-accommodation claim under W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii), as any other renter in town.

### Nearly 45 percent of Riverton households rent. Does a tight market change my rights?

Not the rights, only the stakes. Riverton's 1,880 renter-occupied homes out of 4,190 give it a 44.9 percent renter share, third-highest of the twenty Wyoming cities tracked here and well above the 28.2 percent state figure, in a town of 10,953. Median gross rent is $921 plus or minus $94, under the $992 state median. What a market like that means in practice is that a single refusal can be the whole housing search, and that the same managers see the same applicants repeatedly - which is an argument for making the request in writing and keeping the copy.

### What can a Riverton landlord charge for an assistance animal?

For an ordinary pet, whatever the building decides. No provision of Wyoming law caps a rental deposit, and a portion of one may lawfully be nonrefundable under W.S. 1-21-1207 provided the tenancy agreement discloses that and written notice accompanies the payment. Neither "pet" nor "animal" occurs anywhere in the Residential Rental Property Act. For an assistance animal, though, none of that is the governing law: W.S. 35-13-201(c) requires the animal to be permitted, and W.S. 40-26-107(b) and (c)(ii) with 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f) are what strip the charge away.

### Where does a Riverton complaint go, and how long do I have?

Not to a Wyoming agency. W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii) defines the Fair Housing Act's "enforcing authority" as an entity HUD has accepted, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' Wyoming Advisory Committee reported in January 2025 that no such authority has ever been assigned, leaving Wyoming residents to file with HUD's Denver Regional Office in Colorado. The route that works from Riverton is a court: W.S. 40-26-139 allows a district court action within two years with nothing to exhaust first, and W.S. 40-26-140 permits actual and punitive damages, fees and costs. Read W.S. 40-26-143 first - it awards fees to the prevailing party and costs against the nonprevailing party, in both directions.

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Get evaluated by a licensed provider: https://my.supportanimal.com/qualify?sa_source=blog&sa_medium=blog&sa_campaign=esa-guides&sa_content=markdown&ref=blog&sa_term=wyoming-emotional-support-animal%2Friverton