Transportation Department finalizes rule limiting service animals on flights to dogs
[thehill.com]

The Department of Transportation (DOT) on Wednesday issued a final rule limiting service animals on flights to dogs.

Under the rule, a service animal is defined as a dog “that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.”

In addition, “carriers are not required to recognize emotional support animals as service animals and may treat them as pets,” though "psychiatric service animals" will be treated as service animals.

Airlines can require passengers to submit forms attesting to a service animal’s health, behavior and training within 48 hours in advance of the date of travel under the regulation. However, they cannot require passengers traveling with a service animal to check-in physically as opposed checking-in online.

The rule also allows airlines to require that service animals be harnessed, leashed, or tethered at all times during the flight, and can refuse transportation to service animals that exhibit aggressive behavior or pose a threat.

The rule will take effect in 30 days.

"I must admit there have been a handful of ugly scenes involving people making eye contact with my emotional support baboon."

.....Lorenzo.....Llama.....s.....??

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

I wonder if the airlines will oppose this now, given that they need every paying passenger they can get.

BTW: Do then enforce the mask rule for the animals too?

.....so there will be less 'cougars' boarding planes........??


......young men around the world lament.........

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

My experience on flights was that the emotional support types bringing on weird animals was a small percentage of total passengers...and a fair percentage of total hassle. I do not think it will affect total passenger dollars, and will go some way to de-stress the crews.

A number of the emotional support types that I witnessed were, well, 'special.' They did feel an emotional attachment of some sort and were very hard to reason with. They also had no clue about the impact of the animal on anyone around them.

Of course the bulk of the people were just entitled, and dared the crew to protest. On one flight a woman boarded with two retrievers (full disclosure: I am a retriever owner) and felt that the other two people in her row should just deal with it. There were some extra seats so the crew moved people but the woman's attitude was offensive. And the crew was powerless.

>What about my llama?!!

Dress it up like a dog

---

.....what about alpacas......???

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

I don't think this rule will survive a lawsuit by miniature horse owners.

IIRC, people choose them over dogs because they live longer & the (expensive) training costs about the same.

but ..... Woof

---

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

Ombligo, LOL!

---

Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

Will PeterB take the clippers to one of his hamsters to make it look like a chihuahua?

---

In tha 360. MRF User Map

They have needed to tighten up the extremely lax proof of what is a service animal/emotional support animal for a long time. Here's an article from 2014 that demonstrated how easy it is to take pets aboard by gaming the system: [www.newyorker.com]

---

Quote
$tevie
They have needed to tighten up the extremely lax proof of what is a service animal/emotional support animal for a long time. Here's an article from 2014 that demonstrated how easy it is to take pets aboard by gaming the system: [www.newyorker.com]

Here's a thread from a year ago about a guy who registered a swarm of bees as as emotional support animal.

[forums.macresource.com]

Quote
Filliam H. Muffman
Will PeterB take the clippers to one of his hamsters to make it look like a chihuahua?

Hey, leave my hamsters out of this.

Now, as for my emotional support lion, that's another matter entirely: [www.youtube.com]

---

Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)