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US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

bbc.com

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Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#81

Post by HideousKojima »

vector_spaces wrote: post #79

Reading the comments on this thread is genuinely depressing. It's amazing how callous people can be to simply say "good" and move on, nevermind that people actually benefited massively from this and that most of those people used it in good faith, and likely did not attempt to bring ostriches and ponies aboard. Not to mention the comments that say something to the effect of "well even if it did help a few people, it…

Do you have any hard numbers on how many people used it in good faith vs. milked the system?

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#82

Post by lotsofpulp »

DanBC wrote: post #4
onetimemanytime wrote: post #2

not to be jerk or anything, but if I said that a cow or an elephant is the only thing that soothes me so accommodate them in a plane? How many other people should be inconvenienced by my issues?

Adjustments for disabled people need to be "reasonable". It's reasonable for a blind person to take their guide dog on a plane. It's reasonable for someone with mental illness to take their well trained support animal on the plane. It's unreasonable for someone who's struggling a bit to take their pet cow on a plane.

It's also reasonable to not want to want you or your family sat near a pitbull or other known aggressive breed. Everyone tells me their dog is well behaved and friendly, but I've had to scare dogs away from my kids more than once. My mom has been chased walking around her neighborhood by people violating leash laws. Every time, everyone says their dogs are well trained or well behaved.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#83

Post by Miner49er »

brudgers wrote: post #38

I am not a lawyer, but I have a long standing professional interest in the ADA. It ain't over until it has been to court. The hurdle for the new agency rule is to demonstrate that this is not a violation of civil rights under the American's with Disabilities Act. For the past thirty years (almost) that's tended to be a high bar. How high? Well emotional support animals were flying because the airline industry didn't…

How is this so? The ADA's website very clearly says, "Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA."

https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#84

Post by [deleted] »

Miner49er wrote: post #83
brudgers wrote: post #38

I am not a lawyer, but I have a long standing professional interest in the ADA. It ain't over until it has been to court. The hurdle for the new agency rule is to demonstrate that this is not a violation of civil rights under the American's with Disabilities Act. For the past thirty years (almost) that's tended to be a high bar. How high? Well emotional support animals were flying because the airline industry didn't…

How is this so? The ADA's website very clearly says, "Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA." https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm

[deleted]

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#85

Post by lotsofpulp »

vectorphresh wrote: post #42

A clear example of “This is why we can’t have nice things”, if ever there was one. This definitely sucks from a consumer point of view, but understandable when the focus becomes passenger safety. Service dog training can be verified and as such abusers can be filtered out of consideration.

Merchants are not allowed to ask for proof of a dog being a service dog.

https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm

>When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Staff may ask two questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform. Staff cannot ask about the person’s disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#86

Post by macdamaniac »

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…

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.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#87

Post by llbeansandrice »

nefitty wrote: post #78
llbeansandrice wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Emotional support animals aren’t “ridiculous”. They actually have some positive impact on people’s mental health, eg those with PTSD. I do take issue with abuse of the regulations. Some beneficial medications can be used recreationally, and governments give abundant clarity on legal and illegal uses. It would be harmful for people to start calling those medicines “ridiculous” because some people use them to get high…

You're right. My most common interactions with ESAs is definitely people abusing the loophole to take their pets places which leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but there are certainly valid uses and positive impacts.

I'm a bit touchy on it because I've seen it become a real issue for people with service animals.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#88

Post by mindslight »

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'm with you on the overall abuse of the system. But given that the alternative is often putting the animal in the cargo hold, it's understandable. It's too bad regulators haven't banned that practice while they're at it.

Re: US ends era of emotional support animals on planes

#89

Post by joegahona »

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.
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