Posted on 10/10/2018 9:32:10 PM PDT by Simon Green
Miniature horses may be allowed, but squirrels? Not so fast.
A wheelchair-bound woman in Orlando was thrown off a Frontier Airlines flight for refusing to part with her so-called emotional support squirrel.
Frontier Airlines Flight 1612, bound for Cleveland, was set to depart Tuesday night when a situation developed onboard. A passenger had indicated that an emotional support pet would accompany her when booking her reservation, but never indicated what type of animal that would be. Turns out it was a squirrel.
Squirrels, according to Frontiers guidelines on emotional support animals, are not permitted onboard:
We do not accept unusual or exotic animals including but not limited to rodents, reptiles, insects, hedgehogs, rabbits, sugar gliders, non-household birds or improperly cleaned and/or animals with foul odor.
When told by flight attendants that squirrels were not permitted onboard, she put up a fuss, refusing to exit the aircraft. Rather than risk another David Dao incident, all other passengers were instructed to exit the aircraft. Most had no idea what was going on.
The police were called and eventually the woman was wheeled off the aircraft. You can see, based on the video below, that she was not at all pleased about her ejection, as she extends her middle finger to the crowd of onlookers. No word on whether she was fined or prosecuted.
Passengers re-boarded shortly thereafter and the Frontier flight ultimately reached Cleveland about two hours late.
(Excerpt) Read more at liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com ...
I agree, squirrels are adorable, and I too have trained some to come up to me and take food from my hand. And their antics are highly amusing.
But they are short lived creatures, which means if one is relying on a squirrel for emotional support, one is going to be broken-hearted often, as one’s companion animal dies. A dog or cat breed, which would be suitable as an emotional support therapy animal is usually one with a long life, say 15 years.
“If someone told me they required an emotional support squirrel to travel, the first thoughts across my mind would be of euthanasia and mercy killing.
Who, the person, or the squirrel?”
:-)
Yes.
clearly she must be nuts then. Permission granted!
she thinks she’s a moose
Did the squirrel have his rabies shots? Here, use my 22LR.
I used to have a pet Holstein. I’d ride her home out of the east pasture for night milking. At the time I never thought about taking her on a plane with me.
But it's attached to my body! ;-P
If you read far enough into the article, you find that the plane was not in the air at the time the woman was “thrown off.”
Where do you live? I wasn’t aware they were wild in the U.S.
” Squirrels can get attached to people and people to squirrels.
When I was in college, I started to feed some squirrels on campus with walnuts, which they liked very much.
They got to know me and the treats so well, that when I called out to them, they recognized my voice and came to me, even sat in my lap and on my shoulder, and I was feeding them.
They were adorable.”
The learned you were ‘nuts’. /s
LOL
Yeah good point!
No offense, but those sidewinders make me uncomfortable. They walk funny.
You thought I was gonna say goat, didnt ya? ;)
But it has to be folically-correct ...
I’m not in the US. I’m living in southern Russia - near the Black Sea.
They don't cause damage to your landscaping do they?
Once while camping, I fed some squirrels from a bag of M & M’s that I had in the ice chest to keep from melting. They ‘shelled’ the M & M’s and ate the chocolate inside. They were plain M & M’s that were hard frozen.
Time to regulate this crap out of existence: Any and all veterans who need support animals get them free of charge along with any and all certification and documentation that go with them. All non-veterans who aren’t TRULY handicapped (blind,etc.) have to jump thru hoops and carry ONE RECOGNIZED form of licensing for these “support” animals.
Further, we have to clarify the meaning of “support” animal vs. TRUE service animals.
she may be more “squirelly” than the pet!!
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