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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: 2) by Oakenshield on Friday December 04 2020, @03:02PM (2 children)
My worst encounters were when some 20something woman brought her yappy mutt into the grocery store. She put it in the basket of her cart and pushed it around the store. It snapped and growled at everyone who got within five feet of it. She was constantly trying to get it to sit down. This was the days before COVID when it was rare to sanitize shopping carts. No employees asked her to leave. I certainly didn't want to be the next poor bastard putting my food into that cart.
The next was at a Red Lobster. Although this pet was pretty well behaved, it stunk to high heaven. I have no idea what this dog had rolled in but it was sickening. I had to ask to be moved. I was ten feet away and there was no way I could enjoy a meal while the entire section reeked of wet dog.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2020, @10:20AM (1 child)
A blind friend of mine has had her service dogs attacked by untrained emotional support animals on multiple occasions. Note I said "dogs" because she had to get a new one once after an "emotional support" cat jumped out of the lady's hand at the grocery store unprovoked and clawed its eyes. The dog otherwise survived, but can't see well enough to work. So he was retired and retrained to do some other service.
My friends favorite thing though was when she sued for the money in small claims, her lawyer presented evidence of how much a new dog would cost. They lady made some exclamation like "I had no idea service animals cost that much!" The lawyer jumped all over that as even more evidence that the woman didn't have a properly trained animal, since if she did then she'd know they are expensive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2020, @11:44AM
A pet is an animal with a service human.