Thank god. This was getting ridiculous!
In 2017, the trade group Airlines for America estimated that the number of emotional support animals traveling on commercial flights increased to 751,000, a sharp rise from the 481,000 seen the year before.
I hope other airlines follow suit.
Yes, and those are the only two animals that are named and only in a clinical setting. The fact is that anyone claiming accommodations for an emotional support animal is completely full of it (or their therapist is). I’m not saying there isn’t a benefit for people with real issues, but this is simply a co-opting of provisions meant to help disabled people navigate the world.
Also, it’s fucked up that you have to put yourself in a medically compromised situation for selfish people. Thanks for being a mensch about it.
Well, no one’s ever complained about my emotional support ringworm
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
but to ask me to suffer so you can bring your pet? No. They can fly in the hold, and if you want to be with them, you can too.
I’ll just point out here that the main thing changing is that pets under the guise of an ESA are no longer fee-free in the cabin. Alaska will still allow it, but there’s now a $100 fee. Additionally, they only will allow a total of one pet carrier in the forward cabin and five in the main cabin (more than that and they have to go in the cargo hold, unless it’s peak travel time). They also will only allow dogs, cats, rabbits and household birds, so this excludes your pet squirrels and turkeys.
Having once flown a cat during a move, they also typically want a health certificate with a recent date as well.
Details here: Traveling With Pets - Alaska Airlines
Howza bout I just saunter up to the ticket counter and purchase just one ticket and not tell them I’m already equipped with literally dozens of all sorts of 'motional support animals. Well hidden all about my innards and outermost parts, they of a very symbiotic relationship with me as their emotional support large animal and not likely to abandon me till death do we part, I guess I will just have to try to fly past the TSA check points and self seat myself at a window … so’s my tiny herd can enjoy the view from Buffalo to Newark, or Anchorage to Vancouver completely safe, socially distanced and fully N-95 masked… so none can really ever escape, can they?
Except disability placards, which I suspect involve the very same people.
I hate those fake vests. Right around this time last year, some lady took her pet dog into a local fast food place, and it was running up to people and barking. When someone complained, the lady said that it was an emotional support animal and that it could go where she could go. For fun, I asked her what the dog does, and she said “It runs around and barks”. A quick call to the health department straightened that out.
Like the bars at the amusement park rides. “You must be this tall to ride this ride” sayeth the signs.
In Pasadena one year after the doo dah parade we ended it at the bar around the corner. Another participant brought in their shetland pony. I took a big swig of ale and said “THASS A BIG DOG!!”
The pony and its companion got the boot, but only after it had relieved itself… which I must say -thankfully- was number 2. No permanent damage. Plus, I’d accompanied Zeke the Sheik / Tim Dundon, the king of compost, along the route, and had been tossing bags of the same stuff into the crowd along the entire route so it wasn’t so unfamiliar.
I do hope this step by Alaska Airlines will get some momentum. These animals have been showing up in super markets. They do not all have the discipline or training to be there, which becomes more evident when they encounter one another.
I get asked if my service dog is an emotional support animal all the time and have to constantly explain that he is not. I even get asked what is he for and I, for the sake of being amicable and a proper “ambassador” will explain that he is for PTSD. How far down the rabbits hole of explaining my condition I am willing to go depends entirely on their tone of voice and facial expressions.
By law, they are only allowed to ask two specific questions. You are under no obligation to disclose your condition.
In situations where it is not obvious that the dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two specific 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?
Thanks. I know and often this is asked verbatim and I answer it but often they are legitimately curious and ask without malice so I try to answer them and build good will to me and anyone else like me.
This. This a thousand times.
As a veterinarian, I’ve seen so much “emotional support animal” BS that I automatically assume that the person with an ESA is a lying piece of shit until information is provided that shows otherwise. This should not be the case.
As others have noted, people with genuine medical concerns were allowed a “special” right, and because of legal limitations to verify said concerns, every selfish asshole that didn’t want to be charged to fly their animal, or didn’t want their pet to ride in the hold took advantage of the system, totally screwing the people who actually need trained animals for genuine medical concerns.
Man, reason #6278543 out of the 97280012351 reasons why I have a deep hatred for humans.
Can we please talk about the fact that the miniature horse is missing one adorable shoe? I’m too distracted by that to pay attention to any other part of this.
SIR, PLEASE LOCATE FOURTH HOOF SKETCHER
the rules will apply to “emotional support” monkeys, peacocks, and snake
Why can’t these people just bring teddy bears (or similar inanimate objects)? Why do they have to take live, exotic animals?
The same self-centered reasons people without valid health concerns won’t wear masks or think they are above quarantine restrictions during a pandemic.
Is reason 44 because we aren’t soft and floofy?
Li’l Sebastian an ESA? Cool.
I’m allergic to dogs (and cats) and had a teenage girl bring her “emotional support dog” on the plane and sit down two seats away in my same row. She definitely appeared nervous about flying, but the dog wasn’t on a leash, just on her lap, and I was frustrated that for the sake of her comfort, I had to deal with itchy eyes and an itchy throat for the whole flight. After that trip, I started taking allergy pills before every flight just in case.
