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US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

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Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#91

Post by giarc »

gravitas wrote: post #30
meowfly wrote: post #8

I wish there were better options for people to travel with their pets over long distances. There are plenty of horror stories of pets who have died in cargo. I would be willing to pay for a seat, or even a row, to take my dog on a cross country flight. Setting aside the absurd cases, like emotional support peacocks, I think a lot of the emotional support animal shenanigans are simply people not wanting to cargo their…

About a decade ago I used a service "We Move Pets", who at the time was specializing in transporting pets across North America (CA/US) for pro sports players, NBA and NHL etc. It wasn't cheap (and required I go get special vaccinations and paperwork, understandable) but it worked out great - they were passing by my city and had room on the van to take on another pet to the same destination I was going. Looks like the…

Care to share how much it cost?

I'm also surprised the players didn't just get to bring the pets on the charter plane they travel around the country on, if only for that initial move.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#92

Post by colejohnson66 »

CADBOT wrote: post #26
henrikschroder wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are absolutely allowed to ask for verification that an animal is a real service animal, but the people who have been conflating emotional support animals with service animals want you to believe that you can't. Service animals have to be licensed, trained to perform a task or duty, and be easily identifiable. Misrepresenting an untrained and unlicensed animal as a service animal is fraud and illegal.

Actually, they don't need to be licensed. The only thing a business can ask is what tasks is the service dog trained to be formed. I do think it would be better off for everyone if there was a license though. I've known people with legitimate service dogs who have had that opinion even. They wish they had a document to prove their legitimacy, as they are constantly asked for a document that doesn't exist.

That requirement always felt weird. I can’t ask what disability a person has, but I can ask what the dog is supposed to do? Because if they say it helps alert to a seizure, I just learned they possibly have chronic seizures without actually asking that.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#93

Post by cj »

mwfunk wrote: post #70

I'm all in favor of people who need them having emotional support animals, but for as long as this has been a thing I have been totally shocked at how many people I personally know (who I thought were better people than this) completely abusing it to bring their pets with them everywhere (planes or anywhere else where you don't normally take pets). And joking about abusing the system, and joking about how awesome it…

Edit: Removed comment, sparked unconstructive discussion.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#94

Post by DoreenMichele »

13rac1 wrote: post #61
superdisk wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The emotional support loophole abuse has been going around on Facebook and Reddit as a trick to get your animal anywhere for a while now. Everyone knows the trick now and very few people care that they're abusing the system.

This doesn't seem too far of a reach: "Abusing the system" => Taking advantage of services for people with mental and physical disabilities => Taking advantage of people with disabilities.

It's a little more complicated than that. Homeless people also will claim their pet is an emotional support animal. They are often homeless because they are disabled but being homeless means "Good luck jumping through bureaucratic hoops to register anything."

Sometimes someone's life comes unraveled because their disability has never been properly identified and accommodated. Being able to say "I need this" without having to jump through hoops to prove it can help such people make their lives work better.

Most studies suggest that something like one in five people has a disability. One study that asked about user needs and challenges in using stuff intentionally avoided using stigmatizing words like "disabled" or "handicapped" and more like three fifths of respondents said they had some degree of trouble doing various things and more accessible design would benefit them.

People who are only moderately disabled often try like hell to avoid getting labeled as disabled because it is stigmatizing and people start treating you like you are stupid and worthless rather than like you just need special accommodation in some areas to make your life work. Those who qualify for an official label of "disabled" are equally hostile to seeing only moderately disabled people being granted the label that grants special status and special accommodation.

The reality is that disability occurs along a continuum. It isn't an on/off switch where if you fall on this side of the line you are "normal, healthy and able-bodied" and if you fall on that side of the line you are "disabled." We try to categorize it like it works that way but it doesn't really work that way.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#95

Post by slaymaker1907 »

joegahona wrote: post #89
hpoe wrote: post #5

So something I only recently found out myself is that there is actual no real requirements in order to register an animal as an "emotional support animal", I found that out after my sister registered her dog as an emotional support animal to get around her apartments "no pets allowed" rule. Another interesting thing is that I have a friend who builds apartments in a college town for students. The apartments for years…

I have a huge beef with "pet rent," as it's charging people a non-refundable fee for an animal each month, simply for existing. If landlords would prefer their tenants not have pets, simply do not allow them.

That's really not fair since pets do cause quite a bit of damage on average and as someone who likes pets, I feel like such a policy of not having pet rent would make it even more difficult to find a place that even allows pets.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#96

Post by jjeaff »

joegahona wrote: post #89
hpoe wrote: post #5

So something I only recently found out myself is that there is actual no real requirements in order to register an animal as an "emotional support animal", I found that out after my sister registered her dog as an emotional support animal to get around her apartments "no pets allowed" rule. Another interesting thing is that I have a friend who builds apartments in a college town for students. The apartments for years…

I have a huge beef with "pet rent," as it's charging people a non-refundable fee for an animal each month, simply for existing. If landlords would prefer their tenants not have pets, simply do not allow them.

Makes sense to me. It's like charging a fee for smoking. Pets are going to create a certain extra amount of wear and tear, some not easily quantifiable. No matter how clean and well behaved you think your pet is.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#97

Post by wisty »

mwfunk wrote: post #70

I'm all in favor of people who need them having emotional support animals, but for as long as this has been a thing I have been totally shocked at how many people I personally know (who I thought were better people than this) completely abusing it to bring their pets with them everywhere (planes or anywhere else where you don't normally take pets). And joking about abusing the system, and joking about how awesome it…

There's also the grey area of self-medication.

I generally trust people with physical disabilities to "self-medicate". If someone with a wheelchair says that something will help them live like a normal person, I'm inclined to think they're telling the truth.

But an awful lot of mental health issues are ones where the people tend to make terrible choices when it comes to dealing with their mental health (not every disease, but an awful lot these days). A lot of these disabilities are sustained and enabled by poor coping strategies (e.g. avoiding things they don't like, acting in destructive ways, expecting and getting special treatment, etc).

What about the cases where allowing people to use their mental health as an excuse is making their mental health worse?

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#98

Post by giarc »

sethammons wrote: post #46
pb77 wrote: post #32

I remember a radio host ranting that in his flight there was a lady with a pony as an emotional support animal, there was also a joke about a guy who registered a swarm of bees as emotional support animal. I wonder if that was the case that forced these emotional support animal in planes.

There was a lady in my hometown who had a shetland pony and took the city bus with it. It was quite the double take when I saw a horse getting off a city bus!

That would be the least of my concern while riding a city bus.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#99

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

joegahona wrote: post #89
hpoe wrote: post #5

So something I only recently found out myself is that there is actual no real requirements in order to register an animal as an "emotional support animal", I found that out after my sister registered her dog as an emotional support animal to get around her apartments "no pets allowed" rule. Another interesting thing is that I have a friend who builds apartments in a college town for students. The apartments for years…

I have a huge beef with "pet rent," as it's charging people a non-refundable fee for an animal each month, simply for existing. If landlords would prefer their tenants not have pets, simply do not allow them.

Have been on both sides of this as a renter and landlord, and it's basically an insurance payment. We have all sorts of things for which you need to pay for insurance in order for you to have that thing in your possession. When it comes to pets, basically all apartments will require more cleaning between tenants when a pet occupied the apartment, and for some non-negligible percentage of pets there will be large bills due to accelerated wear and damage.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#100

Post by content_sesh »

Miner49er wrote: post #68
bluGill wrote: post #66

Good. I have nephews who are deathly allergic to dogs. They cannot go many places for fear of random dog encounters.

Service dogs are still allowed.

True, but actual service dogs are well trained and will not randomly try to jump on or play with strangers.
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