Emotional Support Animals

[Anonymous]

The Flyertalk site had an article today about bringing your Emotional Support Animals along on the flight with you ... found myself with a frown as the story at hand was about a person's Emotional Support Animal that bite the Flight Attendant that ended up needing five stitches (NOT FUNNY). Will add that I was bitten by a Bull Masttiff and spent a week in the hospital with IVs due to the infection from the dog's saliva transmitted through the bite and gangrene was setting in so it is not a matter to be taken lightly. Comments ranged to "if you need an Emotional Support Animal" maybe you should not be flying and so on?!

Unfortunately for me, I can remember flying in the golden age when the masses could not afford flights and things were more settled down. Today, we drag people off the plane, we sell the best seats to the highest bidder and I could go on to a "Rant" about strip searching small children and 80 year old grandma's but I won't. Like many of you I have a TV and can watch the best drama on TV at the 6:00PM news (political so will stop).

Anyway, if you get a chance wander on over to Flyter Talk and take in the news on Emotional Support Animals ... found it fascinating

Believe my Emotional Support Animal of choice would be an Iguana as it looks mean and carries some interesting bacteria.

[pinkandgrey]

Ah, the good old days when no one could afford it. Sounds pretty great lol. 

I’m not trying to offend anyone, so I won’t go into what I think about people having Emotional Support Animals....

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The Flyertalk site had an article today about bringing your Emotional Support Animals along on the flight with you ... found myself with a frown as the story at hand was about a person's Emotional Support Animal that bite the Flight Attendant that ended up needing five stitches (NOT FUNNY). Will add that I was bitten by a Bull Mastitis and spent a week in the hospital with IVs due to the infection from the dog's saliva transmitted through the bite and gangrene was setting in so it is not a matter to be taken lightly. Comments ranged to "if you need an Emotional Support Animal" maybe you should not be flying and so on?!

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Oddly enough for a typo/autocorrect, both mastiff bites and mastitis can cause gangrene!

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Terms and conditions for all airlines typically state the service animal has to be able to fit in front of you and can be controlled. There's no excuse not to muzzle a dog unless it's trained to bark for something like an upcoming seizure. I also think part of the problem is there isn't a universal certification for a service animal, there are many companies that can train a service animal and they all have different standards. Because of this, it's hard to verify whether an animal has been properly trained, or if they're even a service animal.

I do think people need to be more understanding of a person's emotional or physiological needs. Flying is the quickest way to cross large distances and you don't know if they're on their way to see a dying relative or to a funeral, or an important medical procedure.

On a somewhat related note, I did have someone one time say my wife shouldn't be allowed to fly because she's allergic to peanuts and she ruins the flight for everyone. 😁

[wasCB14]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

Terms and conditions for all airlines typically state the service animal has to be able to fit in front of you and can be controlled. There's no excuse not to muzzle a dog unless it's trained to bark for something like an upcoming seizure. I also think part of the problem is there isn't a universal certification for a service animal, there are many companies that can train a service animal and they all have different standards. Because of this, it's hard to verify whether an animal has been properly trained, or if they're even a service animal.

I do think people need to be more understanding of a person's emotional or physiological needs. Flying is the quickest way to cross large distances and you don't know if they're on their way to see a dying relative or to a funeral, or an important medical procedure.

On a somewhat related note, I did have someone one time say my wife shouldn't be allowed to fly because she's allergic to peanuts and she ruins the flight for everyone. 😁

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The lack of certification that is both standard and reliable definitely makes it tricky to separate the people who need ESAs from the frauds.

Of course, some people are also very allergic to pets. Bites, defecation, and noise aside, the addition of animals even to help a legitimate ESA owner can be a problem for another passenger. I don't know if pet allegies get to be as severe as peanut allergies, though.

[Anonymous]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

The Flyertalk site had an article today about bringing your Emotional Support Animals along on the flight with you ... found myself with a frown as the story at hand was about a person's Emotional Support Animal that bite the Flight Attendant that ended up needing five stitches (NOT FUNNY). Will add that I was bitten by a Bull Mastitis and spent a week in the hospital with IVs due to the infection from the dog's saliva transmitted through the bite and gangrene was setting in so it is not a matter to be taken lightly. Comments ranged to "if you need an Emotional Support Animal" maybe you should not be flying and so on?!

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Oddly enough for a typo/autocorrect, both mastiff bites and mastitis can cause gangrene!

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Interesting enough, the spelling changed three times and I did not notice it was changed again ... even went to my friend Google for spelling as I found it so it was correct (or so I thought). Cellulitis is the actual infection that took me down. As a follow, the dog was put down and the owner's insurance company had some serious hospital bills to pay $15,000. The Doctor was furious that I had not come in right after the bite ... well I will be more alert to these things in the future for sure. Sure would not hesitate to pursue someone on an airplane for having their pet (whatever it is) bite me. In truth I do not buy the Emotional Support Animal thing and would ban all but proven trained service animals.

[calyx]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

Terms and conditions for all airlines typically state the service animal has to be able to fit in front of you and can be controlled. There's no excuse not to muzzle a dog unless it's trained to bark for something like an upcoming seizure. I also think part of the problem is there isn't a universal certification for a service animal, there are many companies that can train a service animal and they all have different standards. Because of this, it's hard to verify whether an animal has been properly trained, or if they're even a service animal.

I do think people need to be more understanding of a person's emotional or physiological needs. Flying is the quickest way to cross large distances and you don't know if they're on their way to see a dying relative or to a funeral, or an important medical procedure.

On a somewhat related note, I did have someone one time say my wife shouldn't be allowed to fly because she's allergic to peanuts and she ruins the flight for everyone. 😁

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The lack of certification that is both standard and reliable definitely makes it tricky to separate the people who need ESAs from the frauds.

Of course, some people are also very allergic to pets. Bites, defecation, and noise aside, the addition of animals even to help a legitimate ESA owner can be a problem for another passenger. I don't know if pet allegies get to be as severe as peanut allergies, though.

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They can be, actually.
I actually go into anaphylaxis around rabbit dander, and I have some severe cat allergies (not quite anaphylaxis, but enough to have required emergency treatment).

Safety and medical conditions are one of the few things that can stop an ADA covered service animal (note: not the ESAs we're talking about here, those are only covered by FHA and transportation rules, which is why people keep gaming the system) from being able to go into certain areas.   It's an area of the law/regs that a lot of people are loathe to get into, but as a facility manager, I've had to do that (in my case, service animals, even for physical disabilities, are not allowed due to safety reasons).

And to Brian's point above:   You absolutely can use a variety of muzzles that don't restrict breathing, barking, or drinking of water (or eating in some cases).   As far as I'm concerned, all ESA animals should have to have those on if they're not in a carrier.

[Anonymous]

@calyxappreciate the additional information from some one who has to deal with the transporting of animals. Very interesting!