# ESA Letter in Wheatland, WY: Two Misdemeanors, No Remedy

> Wyoming makes refusing an assistance animal a misdemeanor. A Wheatland ESA letter dispute still runs on W.S. 40-26-139, because a fine pays the state.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 3,475
- Households renting: 37.9%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Uncapped, may be nonrefundable
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Lease sets it; no state limit
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Wyoming attached a fine to this, and then stopped

Shutting a person with a disability out of a rented home is not only a civil
wrong in Wyoming. In two separate places, the code calls it a crime. One
section covers the refusal. The other covers what a landlord does after a
tenant asks.

That is more than most states put in writing. It is also the least useful
part of the law for getting a door opened, because neither section hands a
tenant anything to file.

## 592 renting households in a town of 3,475

Wheatland, in Platte County, is the smallest of the twenty Wyoming cities
covered here, with a 2024 population estimate of **3,475**. Of its **1,564**
occupied homes, **592** are rented. **37.9 percent** on the Census Bureau's
2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimates, well clear of the
**28.2 percent** renting statewide. Sheridan, a city nearly six times the
size, rents at exactly the same 37.9 percent.

Median gross rent here is an estimate rather than a fixed figure: **$741,
plus or minus $160**. In a town this small the survey sample is small too,
so the honest reading is the whole interval, not its middle. Even at the top
of the range it stays under the **$992** Wyoming median, and Rawlins reports
the same $741.

A low rent does not make a pet charge small: a flat monthly premium eats far
more of $741 than of a $2,100 rent in Jackson.

## Count the subsections W.S. 35-13-203(a) reaches

**W.S. 35-13-203(a)** makes it a misdemeanor to deny or interfere with "any place or facility
referenced in W.S. **35-13-201(a) through (c)**," and sets a fine of not more than **$750**.

Stop on the words "(a) through (c)". A range takes in its last member, and subsection (c) of
W.S. 35-13-201 is the housing sentence: "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."

So the conduct the criminal section describes reaches a landlord's refusal. Plenty of states file
their assistance-animal misdemeanor next to shops, restaurants and buses and leave rented homes out
of it.

The animal is named as well. **W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv)** defines an "assistance animal" to include one
that "provides emotional support that alleviates one (1) or more identified symptoms or effects of a
person's disability." That definitions section opens "As used in this article," and W.S. 35-13-201
sits in the same article. Nothing on that branch asks for training. A subsection (b) points the
other way, knowingly *and* intentionally passing an animal off to obtain these rights is its own
misdemeanor.

## W.S. 40-26-144 covers what happens after you ask

The Fair Housing Act carries a criminal provision of its own. **W.S.
40-26-144** makes a misdemeanor of two things.

The first is intimidating or interfering with someone by force or threat of
force because that person is renting or occupying a dwelling, where
disability is the reason. The second, written separately, is coercing,
intimidating, threatening or interfering with anyone who is exercising a
right the chapter gives them.

That second half is the retaliation clause. Asking for a reasonable
accommodation under **W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii)** is exercising a right under
the chapter, and pressure applied *because* you asked is the conduct the
section is written around.

## Who decides whether either section is ever charged

Now the limits.

Both are criminal, and a criminal case in Wyoming is brought by a county or
district attorney at that office's discretion. A tenant does not file a
misdemeanor and cannot make anyone else file one. You can report conduct;
the decision after that belongs to somebody else.

And **no Wyoming prosecution of a landlord under W.S. 35-13-203(a) was
located**, none won, none lost, none found at all. Read these sections as a
statement the legislature chose to make, not as a record of anything that
has happened.

## What a fine does not do for a Wheatland tenant

Even a charge that went forward would not deliver what a renter needs. The
$750 is paid to the state. It is not paid to you.

Neither section gives a tenant damages. Neither produces an order requiring
the animal to be allowed or the fee to come off. Neither opens a file you
control, on a clock you control, in a forum you can walk into. Criminal law
is built for something else, which is why these two sections cannot be
anybody's plan.

## The section that answers to the tenant instead

**W.S. 40-26-139(a)** lets an aggrieved person file a civil action in district court "not later than
the second year after the date of the occurrence or the termination of an alleged discriminatory
housing practice." Two years. Subsection (c) makes that action available "whether a complaint has
been filed under W.S. 40-26-118 and without regard to the status of any complaint filed under that
section," so there is no earlier step to finish first.

The Act's one-year administrative deadline in W.S. 40-26-118 runs to an
"enforcing authority," which **W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii)** defines as a body HUD has accepted for this
state. 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."

**W.S. 40-26-140** sets out what a court may award: "actual and punitive damages, reasonable
attorney's fees, court costs," plus injunctive relief. Read **W.S. 40-26-143** at the same sitting,
fees go to the prevailing party and costs are assessed against the nonprevailing party, in either
direction. Alongside the lawsuit sits a federal complaint. 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."

## Putting two misdemeanors into a written request

Naming them still does work, as long as the sentence stays factual rather
than threatening. A landlord learns that the legislature attached a criminal
penalty to this conduct.

> I am requesting a reasonable accommodation under W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii) and W.S. 35-13-201(c), and
> under 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B). Wyoming also treats denial of the places and facilities
> referenced in W.S. 35-13-201(a) through (c) as a misdemeanor under W.S. 35-13-203(a), and treats
> interference with a person exercising a right under the Fair Housing Act chapter as a misdemeanor
> under W.S. 40-26-144.

Date it, send it in a form that leaves a trail, and keep your copy. If a
deposit or a monthly pet charge is attached to the animal, ask for that in
the same letter, under **W.S. 40-26-107(b)**: the terms, conditions and
privileges of a rental, which is where a pet premium lives. Wyoming's rental
statutes are no help there: the words "pet" and "animal" appear nowhere in
W.S. 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211, and the state caps a deposit at nothing.
Every fee argument here is a fair-housing argument.

## Where a Platte County renter can turn

No Wyoming state agency takes a housing-discrimination complaint. The
Secretary of State's rulemaking list runs to 81 agencies and contains no
fair-housing, human-rights or civil-rights body at all.

What is local is the county. Platte County's website names a "Housing Authority Office, 1605 #4E
16th St., Wheatland" on its Housing Board page: the county's own description of it, and the place
to start on county housing programs. A refusal itself goes to Legal Aid of Wyoming's housing pages;
the Town of Wheatland and Platte County sites carry the rest of the local contacts.

## A crime on paper, a claim in court

Every route on this page rests on a pair of findings, and W.S.
35-13-205(a)(iv) is where they are set down: a disability on one side and,
on the other, an animal alleviating symptoms or effects of it that somebody
has troubled to **identify**. Without both, the misdemeanors describe
nothing and the civil action proves nothing.

If a clinician already treats you, ask them first. That document is the
strongest one there is. The friction is worth naming honestly. Specialist
mental-health capacity runs out quickly past Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie,
Platte County is well past all three, a first appointment can be weeks away,
and a provider who has met you twice may decline to certify a disability
rather than commit to more than they have observed. That is a limit being
respected, not a door being closed.

Where that door does not open, a licensed evaluation books the same judgment
deliberately. Someone licensed to assess you takes each question in turn and
records the outcome the examination will carry, sometimes that it carries
neither question. Both endings are genuine, and a service promising the
result before the appointment is selling exactly what W.S. 35-13-203(b)
calls a misdemeanor.

Wyoming's criminal sections tell a Wheatland landlord the legislature meant
it. What a district court reads two years later is your letter.

## What Wheatland 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 Wheatland

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Wheatland. 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 Wheatland. (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 Wheatland

- [Town of Wheatland](https://townofwheatlandwy.org/) (city government)
- [Platte County Housing Board](https://www.plattecountywyoming.com/housing-board) (local housing authority)
- [Platte County, Wyoming](https://www.plattecountywyoming.com/) (county government)
- [Legal Aid of Wyoming - Housing](https://www.lawyoming.org/housing) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### Is it really a crime for a Wheatland landlord to refuse an assistance animal?

The statute describes it as one. W.S. 35-13-203(a) makes it a misdemeanor, fined not more than $750, to deny or interfere with "any place or facility referenced in W.S. 35-13-201(a) through (c)", and subsection (c) is the leasing and renting sentence. Count the range and the housing provision is inside it. That is unusual and it is worth naming in a written request. It is not, however, something to plan around.

### Why not just report it to the police, then?

Because a misdemeanor is charged at the discretion of a county or district attorney, and W.S. 35-13-203(a) gives a tenant nothing of their own: no damages, no filing route, no private remedy. The fine, if one were ever imposed, is paid to the state rather than to you. No Wyoming prosecution of a landlord under that section was located for this page, and none should be assumed.

### What protects me if my landlord retaliates after I ask?

W.S. 40-26-144. Subsection (a) covers intimidating or interfering by force or threat of force with someone renting or occupying a dwelling because of disability; subsection (b) makes it a discriminatory practice to "coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with any individual in the exercise or enjoyment of" a right granted by the chapter, or on account of having exercised one. Subsection (c) makes an offence under either a misdemeanor. It is the provision a tenant who has already made a request most needs to know exists.

### So which section actually gets a Wheatland tenant somewhere?

W.S. 40-26-139: a civil action in district court within two years of the occurrence or termination of the practice, available under subsection (c) whether or not any complaint was filed first. W.S. 40-26-140 lets that court award actual and punitive damages, attorney's fees and costs, plus injunctive relief. That is the route with a remedy attached to it, and it runs alongside a complaint to HUD.

### Does Wyoming law cover an emotional support animal?

By name, and clearly. W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv) defines an "assistance animal" to include one that "provides emotional support that alleviates one (1) or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability," with no training requirement on that branch. Because the definitions section opens "As used in this article," it governs W.S. 35-13-201(c) in the same article. The word doing the work is "identified": identified by somebody qualified to identify it.

### Is there a housing authority in Wheatland?

Platte County's own website has a Housing Board page, which names a "Housing Authority Office, 1605 #4E 16th St., Wheatland." That is how the county describes it and this page goes no further. It is not among the six public housing authorities listed for Wyoming statewide (Cheyenne, Casper, Jackson/Teton, Rock Springs, Evanston and Hanna), so treat the county page as the starting point rather than assuming a full-service agency.

### Where does a housing discrimination complaint from Wheatland go?

To HUD's Region VIII office in Denver, Colorado. The Wyoming Fair Housing Act's complaint sections all run through an "enforcing authority" defined at W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii) as a body HUD has accepted, and HUD has accepted none. A federal advisory committee reported in January 2025 that the Governor has assigned that authority to no state or local entity and that Wyoming residents must file with the Denver regional office.

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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%2Fwheatland