Unleashing Success In-House: Navigating Liability Risks in Pet-Friendly Workplaces

The trend of pet-friendly workplaces has seen a significant rise in recent years, with many companies recognizing potential benefits for employee morale and recruitment. A 2024 study found that 82% of HR professionals believe being a pet-friendly employer will help them recruit and retain the best talent.

The most common way this tends to play out is in the form of employee benefits. For example, Workday Inc. offers a “shelter pet subsidy” that pays employees up to $150 to cover pet adoption fees, and New York City is considering a "Pawternity Leave" bill that would guarantee employees paid time off to care for pets or service animals.

But a number of employers in the public and private sectors have gone one step further and moved to create a culture that is more accepting of bringing pets to the workplace.

For example, according to Yahoo Finance: Amazon employees are welcome to bring their dogs to the office, and the company even has special doggie drinking fountains; Etsy has allowed dogs in the office since the company’s birth in 2005; and HubSpot not only allows employees to bring dogs to work, but also offers a “PupSpot” calendar featuring dogs from the office, with a portion of the proceeds donated to local animal shelters.

Mitigating Liability Risks in Pet-Friendly Workplaces: Essential Strategies

The image of happy employees with their furry companions may be appealing and make for a compelling talent incentive for workers, but consider some obvious liability scenarios that can arise in a pet-friendly workplace:

• Animal bites and injuries
• Trips and falls
• Allergic reactions and health concerns
• Property damage
• Nuisances and disturbances
• Negligent actions involving employee failure to control their pet

These potential risks are real, but legal experts advise they can be effectively mitigated through careful planning and implementation of a comprehensive pets in the workplace policy.

“Before bringing any pets into the office, create a pet policy that is fair and consistent, and communicate it clearly to employees,” advises the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

According to Business.com, here are five essentials for your policy:

1. All pets must be vaccinated. This reduces dangers, worries and liabilities that may arise from diseases and infections, some of which could be transmitted to humans.
2. Pets must be trained and well-behaved. Office pets should have no history of aggression, be potty-trained, be controllable, and socialize well with people and other animals.
3. Designate pet-free zones in the workplace. It is important to create a strict space where pets are allowed and a separate space for workers who are not “pet people” so that no one feels uncomfortable or unsafe.
4. Mandate sanitary office practices. Delegate cleanup and maintenance responsibilities to pet owners, requiring them to promptly handle vacuuming, sanitizing of desks and cleaning up accidents.
5. Create an anonymous complaint process. Some employees will not be enthusiastic about a pet-friendly workplace—but will be reluctant to speak up for fear of adverse reactions from their colleagues. Make it easy for these workers to report their concerns in a way that preserves their privacy.

Insights for In-House Counsel on Managing Service Animals in the Workplace

In one sense, in-house legal departments and their outside counsel have grappled with this issue for years in the context of whether employees have a right to bring service animals to the workplace under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

“One of the most complex areas of employment law has been getting fuzzier as more employees ask to bring their emotional support animals to work to help deal with disabilities,” Law360® reported back in 2018.

Samuel Lillard and Jantzen Mace, lawyers at Ogletree Deakins and Practical Guidance contributors for LexisNexis®, published a detailed practice note—Service Animals, Emotional Support Animals and Pets: Accommodation Rules and Best Practices—that has important guidance for in-house counsel on providing accommodations to persons with disabilities and their related animals. This includes employees as well as customers or other visitors to the workplace.

In addition, Practical Guidance from LexisNexis offers a sample document—Service and Emotional Support Animals and Pets Policy (Public Accommodation of Place)—that in-house counsel can use as a policy drafting template.

In-house attorneys need access to timely legal news and insights to help them monitor changes in this developing area of the law and to create pet-friendly workplace policies that minimize liability risks. Get a free trial of Practical Guidance.

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