Dog was a possible lab mix weighing 50 lbs. Was the dog expected to sit on the owners lap?
Injured passenger was sitting in the window seat. I would be claustrophic with a dog that close to me and would have asked to switch seats.
OK, someone remind me of what the rules are if you are a passenger nearby with a dog allergy? Whose ârightsâ supersede? And do you have to prove your allergy somehow or just state it? Because I surely donât want to be near a dog, especially a 50 lb. one with questionable behavior.
I do know that a friend traveling with a cat (not a service animal, she paid for it to travel in a carrier in the cabin) was bounced from a plane because someone had a letter from her doctor that she was highly allergic to cats and couldnât travel in the same cabin.
The dogs/animals donât sit on your lap but have to be under the seat in front or behind your knees. My niece travels with her dog, who probably weighs 30-35 pounds, and he canât be blocking her feet. He is a wonderful dog, but I still think it is a scam and shouldnât be allowed.
Thereâs a huge abuse of the system right now and itâs going to make it harder for people who have a certified animal with them.
The gov is already trying to relax ADA requirements. Stories like this gives them fuel.
My nephewâs ex-GF was regaling us on how easy it was to buy the ESA vest online and get an MD note so she could bring her dog onboard free to fly from CA to HI. Abuse of the system is rampant. There are dogs frequently brought to the shopping malls, markets and clothing stores. If you have severe allergies to dogs, I guess you have to avoid all these places. So far, Iâve only seen dogs taken everywhere but wonât be surprised if folks start bring other animals as well.
Iâve not sat beside anyone who had an animal in a seat on a plane and would immediately get up and get âreaccommodated.â I am mildly allergic to fur and pets and a long plane ride near one would NOT be good for my health.
I just sat next to someone with an ESA. The dog had no leash, no collar no kennel. He was just a lap dog. Cute and small. I like dogs so it was not a problem for me. But, I highly doubt this was a âvalidâ ESA. And, the system is set up to encourage abuse.
Wow, I donât know what sort of outcome I would support but it just seems very wrong that the guy who got bitten is sent off to the hospital while the dog and its owner go on their way.
Iâm allergic to cats; I get miserably stuffy and sneezy and itchy eyes. It would totally suck for me to be near one on a long flight. I wonder whose rights would take precedence, mine or a cat ownerâs? If the cat was a couple rows away I wouldnât even know why I was suffering an allergy attack.
When and where are we supposed to report our allergies so we donât gave bad allergy attacks throughout our long 5-11+ hour flights? Even if we canât see the animal, if the dander and allergens and being circulated throughout the plane, it can be a significant problem for someone who is highly allergic.
First step would be to require dogs on a flight to be muzzled. Also the owner should be required to carry insurance, so the airline is not the one to pay out after the lawsuit.
What would be the ground for a lawsuit?
??? If a dog bites you, you sue, of course. Suing the owner and the airline would be normal.
The airline my cats flew had a rule: if the cats paid their $100 plus per pound of weight fee first, a person with allergy will not get to fly on the same plane and vice versa.
What happened is terrible. This would not have happened if the dog was a real ADA service animal. Those dogs get extensive training and can tolerate the stress of being in a confine, crowded place next to strangers.
BB, which airline was that? It seems that there are no hard and fast rules. The only airline Iâve heard of that doesnât allow animals in the cabins with allergic passengers is Turkish Airways. And, you have to make your reservation and state your allergy before anyone else makes a reservation to travel with a pet. Any pet. They may be exempt from USA rules about animals.
I have heard stories of allergic people being removed from planes because they were âsickâ and so shouldnât be flying. Nice. It seems that whoever boards first has an advantage and with ESA people preboarding with their pets, they usually have the advantage.
I flew tonight and there was a leashed but uncrated dog on each flight. Where does the bulldog go? Or the med/small dog that was cute but wouldnât be able to fit under the seat? Shouldnât people at least have to buy an extra seat like the COS or someone traveling with a cello?
The dogâs owner was a veteran and the victim was worried and asked beforehand if the dog would bite him. They had just been seated. The flight was heading to San Diego so at least the victim could get off and get medical attention quickly.
If this is being abused to this point, then I think we need to take a step back. All animals, besides ADA animals of specific reasons, must be crated. So, there will obviously be a weight limit. The health and safety of the general populous is more important than a few that need âsupportâ while flying, which Iâm skeptical of anyway.
This is an interesting article about how a reporter was able to take a claimed ESA all over, including on a plane. The animals were: snake, pig, turkey, turtle and alpaca.
My daughter had a severe cat dander allergy episode on a flight. But there wasnât even a cat on the flight, just someone nearby with enough cat dander on their clothing for her to have a reaction.
From my experience every airline accommodates allergies differently. For peanut allergies Southwest is the best and Delta is the worst.
The problem is that housing and airlines have to by law accommodate the ESAs. There should be no accommodation of these animals anywhere. If the person is that emotionally handicapped that they need an animal with them, then they should go through the process to get a real service animal and not this ESA nonsense.
I think that all animals should be crated and stay crated during the flight. If the animals are too big to fly under the seat in their crate then they should be in cargo.