Posted on 01/22/2020 4:00:48 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Travelers may be used to flying with their emotional support animals -- anything from a pet hamster to a baby crocodile -- but the rules are about to change, according to a new proposal from the Department of Transportation.
The proposal unveiled by DOT on Wednesday proposes to strictly limit the definition of a service animal to a dog, reversing a policy that permits a wide range of other animals to fly under that framework.
DOTs new rule also no longer requires airlines to recognize emotional support animals, with the agency citing a number of reasons for the change.
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"The increased availability of fraudulent ESA credentials has enabled people who are not truly in need of animal assistance to abuse the rules and evade airline policies regarding animals in the cabin," Airlines for America said in a statement. "This has led to an increase in incidents by untrained animals threatening the health and safety of passengers, crew and passengers with disabilities traveling with legitimate service animals."
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(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Well, there goes the wife... oh wait... grin.
Thank you!
Dang, I was doing so well with my emotional support yak.
Oh, great. Now I’m gonna have to buy my tarantula a seat.
How odd to see something handled rationally these days.
Does my emotional support tarantula have a chance?
Do our children still count?
My 13 ft. reticulated python gets carsick and it is unfair to Lil Slither not to be treated with the same respect as humans. Once he wraps those coils around you, you can't help but love the little feller.
Bring on the lawsuits, injunctions, etc on behalf of the freaks, uh, sorry, the “special needs” flyers
Its about time!
Good.
When I read that someone wanted to bring a pony onto a plane as an emotional support animal I knew they have gone too far.
Simple solution - 1) if the animal is not house broken, it does not get on the plane, 2) if the owner can not demonstrate the animal can obey simple commands, it does not get on the plane 3) if the animal is normally found in the wild and could kill and eat someone then it does not get on the plane.
You would think in a civilized society that people would not have to be told this.
OK ok, but just for YOU! and back down the slippery slope we slide...
(insert jokes about: “No, that’s not my girlfriend. That’s my emotional-support cougar!”)
No cats?
I guess I cant travel with my emotional support tarantula and honey badger anymore. Oh the huge manatee!!!!
No cats?
—
In a carrier perhaps.
I’m a rotten flyer. The cold sweating, armrest gripping, won’t get out of my seat to pee even on a 10 hour flight kind of flyer.
How I handle it: Unless it’s an emergency, I drive or don’t go. And if I have to go, I suck it up and don’t inflict my lunacy on the rest of the flying public.
bout frigen time
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