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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

#231

Post by casey77 »

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…

They should just make the back three rows specific for people with dogs. That would at least force people to decide how much they want to bring the dog with them.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#232

Post by paulddraper »

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…

I would be shocked if the abuse wasnt >50%

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#233

Post by macdamaniac »

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…

I have a pretty unpopular take on this, being married to someone with severe pet allergies. That take is, dogs (and cats) have no place on an airplane, and responsible adults shouldn't get pets that they can't find sitters for or board while they are away. Planes are enclosed-air spaces, and the allergens from your dog make anyone with allergies miserable for the entire duration of the flight. Every single time we end up on a plane with a dog (even the "hypoallergenic" ones), my wife ends up sick. Not to mention the fact that there are plenty of people with severe phobias of dogs, and that the animals themselves tend to be extremely uncomfortable on flights. That last factor has actually led to a number of innocent people sitting next to folks with dogs getting bit, etc on planes.

Actual service animals do still belong, because they provide an actual service, are extremely well-trained, and are worth the allergen/phobia tradeoff because folks who need them literally need them.

The amount of entitlement that pet owners have to impose the downsides of their pets on others boggles my mind sometimes.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#234

Post by leetcrew »

hackeraccount wrote: post #166
tarboreus wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, as a blind person I support restrictions on emotional support animals, which is a concept that has been abused more often than it is used. I'm sympathetic to people who want to bring their animals with them, but pretending that your animal is needed to support you emotionally isn't the answer. If you want to create a movement to allow animals at every venue, then start it and society can have that debate. But fi…

Worked for pot.

it worked in the sense that we now have "wink-wink nudge-nudge" recreational weed in states where it would not be politically feasible to have it explicitly legalized. it's still an abuse of the system. MMJ practices in medical-only states are basically the weed equivalent of pill mills. jury's still out on whether this will have any lasting implications, but I do wonder if this doesn't detract from the legitimacy of weed as a bona-fide medicine.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#235

Post by maxk42 »

crazcarl wrote: post #64
maxk42 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the laws here are really stupid. ESAs are not covered under federal law. But service animals are. However - there is no accreditation program for service animals, so you cannot ask for proof that an animal is a service animal. You are also not allowed to ask a person what their disability is or demand they demonstrate some sort of proof of either disability or specialized training in their animal. So essentially…

This is incorrect per the article. It clearly states "Wednesday's rule change by the US Department of Transportation now says only dogs qualify as service animals." So no, the airlines don't have to accept someone's service animal that isn't a dog.

I didn't say they did.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#236

Post by snark42 »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #218
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that an Emotional Support Animal Service Animal. It appears they will still allow service animals, but not the "I just need my Great Dane by me on the flight damnit!!" emotional support animals.

It sounds like dogs only, so you can probably still take your Great Dane.

Has to be trained by a licensed service animal program and fit under the seat.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#237

Post by joegahona »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #219
joegahona wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't get is why can't this occur via a massive deposit on the front end, that the landlord can then itemize and prove when the tenant moves out? Rent forces all people to pay a monthly charge for their pet, regardless if their pet is a disaster or well behaved.

A security deposit is a legal term treated differently than rent, and can become a subjective thing that can be litigated. It's much more secure to simply demand it as rent. Hotels discount rooms all the time for guests they know have a very low likelihood of causing damage. The probability of a person with a pet causing damage must be sufficiently high that it makes sense to charge extra. There's plenty of competing…

> A security deposit is a legal term treated differently than rent, and can become a subjective thing that can be litigated. It's much more secure to simply demand it as rent.

Oh, I realize why landlords prefer it. I just don't think it holds up under scrutiny. If you're my tenant and I charge you $100/month for dog rent on your new puppy, who causes $0 damage and lives for 14 years, I've extracted $16,800 from you, $0 of which will go toward rehabbing the apartment of dog damages when you leave.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#238

Post by joegahona »

fuzxi wrote: post #216
joegahona wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably the rent is the same whether it's just you, or you and an autistic child.

Why are you comparing children with autism to animals? You could have simply said "children", as all children are likely to cause some damage to a home that an adult would not.

Apologies, that was careless. I was recalling a specific situation of a woman and child who lived above me 5 years ago. I let the details of this lady's situation seep into my analogy and it came off really poorly.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#239

Post by s1artibartfast »

llbeansandrice wrote: post #45
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…

A bit of conflation in some of the comments but the "issue" is a bit of a loophole in the ADA. The ADA basically tries to minimize the burden of having a disability. So there are no licensing fees or registration or anything related to having a service animal by the government and as such businesses, landlords, etc. can't ask for something like a license or registration of a service animal as verification. The key di…

Some states have protections specifically for emotional support animals (ESA), in additional to service animals.

For example, California landolords must allow ESAs and can not require pet deposits for them

https://usserviceanimals.org/blog/emotional-support-animal-l...

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#240

Post by henrikschroder »

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.

Oh, thanks for correcting me, I thought there was a license involved in the US, or at least some kind of certification that the animal actually is trained, and that you didn't just slap a vest on your pet poodle...
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