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US ends era of emotional support animals on planes
US airlines will no longer be required to transport emotional support animals after passengers insisted on bringing on board their horses, pigs, peacocks and turkeys for psychological reasons.
Wednesday's rule change by the US Department of Transportation now says only dogs qualify as service animals.
The agency said unusual animals on flights had "eroded the public trust in legitimate service animals".
Airlines say the old policy had been abused and was dangerous.
The new rule defines service dogs as "individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability", and says other animals should be treated by airlines as pets that can be placed in the cargo hold for a fee.
Previously: The Confusion About Pets (archive)
"Emotional Support Animals" Riding With Owners Aboard Commercial Airlines Flights
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2020, @12:33PM (1 child)
Abuse of "service animals" is common (abuse of the definition, not the animals!... Hopefully), but there are other things that service animals do besides just guiding the blind. The definition is that it must be specially trained to perform a specific and necessary task. One common task is detection of allergens, oncoming seizures, or diabetic attacks. They can also be trained to help people with physical disabilities by, for example, retrieving objects that would be difficult for the person to handle without assistance.
Horses can also be valid service animals, they're as trainable as dogs and live longer, but of course most are inconveniently large. Still, it happens. The DOT does not administer the ADA, and it sounds like they're setting up a regulatory conflict.
Emotional support peacocks are bullshit, of course.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 04 2020, @09:09PM
Emotional support animals are NOT service animals. They are covered by completely different law. Service animals are under the ADA. ESAs on planes are covered by the ACAA, which was passed after a senator's wife was forced to put her dog in cargo. After having the fear of God (and budget cuts) put into them, they loosened up the documentation rules quite a bit. Legally they have to still allow service animals on planes, regardless of species, so there will probably be a lawsuit. But by actually requiring the documentation the law says they can require would still cut drastically down on abuses.