Yes, I realize that you can’t CURRENTLY ask for proof. Which is why people get away with it.
I WANT there to be a requirement.
Of course people should be able to bring their service animals into the plane cabin with them. Would you really deny a person the help of their seeing eye dog or a dog that senses a seizure coming or helps them with functions they cannot do (e.g., one of my mom’s physically and mentally disabled students had a dog who could turn on lightswitches and everything for him)? These dogs are way more than pets, and need to be able to perform their functions for their owners on the plane ride and/or immediately afterwards.
Yes, there probably should be more regulation to avoid abuse-- perhaps a stricter certification system, but I think people are overreacting to one very sad incident.
I do not think anyone is overreacting to anything. People are reacting to seeing animals that often misbehave at grocery stores, dept stores, etc.
^The point is that the dog in the OP wasn’t a service animal. It was an untrained ESA. I don’t think anyone wants to deny someone with a legitimate disability the use of a trained service animal, but the number of people claiming the family dog or other animal as a necessary ESA has gotten out of control. It’s reasonable to expect people with allergies or dog phobias to accommodate people with disabilities but IMO it’s not reasonable to expect them to accommodate everyone who wants to get their chihuahua or Siamese in the cabin of a plane for free.
No one is saying ban dogs from all flights period. They are asking for some sort of certification that this is a dog that actually performs a service and is trained.
Trained service animals will not attack unprovoked. Many of these ESAs are not trained service animals.
I am firmly embedded in disability rights & justice activist communities. Disabled people know that these untrained animals are a threat to the use of their trained animals.
I use a wheelchair and am grateful that is illegal to put up a random handicapped parking placard up in your car and use those limited handicapped spots. If it was deregulated, I would be even more screwed than I am now. I know many people with service animals who believe the same about “ESAs” that aren’t properly trained and certified as I do about people illegally parking in handicapped spots.
WHY does it need to be repeated for the umpteenth time in this thread that service animals are NOT the same thing as emotional support animals?
The law does not require businesses to allow ESAs anywhere other than transportation and housing! And even in those situations, there are limits. Airlines do not have to allow emotional support snakes!
@Nrdsb4 you’re right, of course. The problem is, how do you prove a service animal is actually a service animal and not an ESA?
ETA: Ew, I missed the snake thing. Nope nope nope. (I’m really terrified of snakes.)
Because service animals DO have a certification and one CAN ask for that certification. You just can’t ask about the person’s disability. ESAs do NOT have a certification- just the thing you can order on the internet!
I think I might have shared that a lawyer friend of mine is a lawyer for Ross stores. A customer in California (of course) tried to bring an emotional support boa constrictor into one of the Ross stores. All the customers went screaming from the store. Ross did not permit the snake to come in.
How does a snake wear a vest? 
For anyone else who doesn’t like snakes: don’t bother googling. There are no pictures of snakes in vests.
Sometimes I wish I didn’t have a compulsive need to follow every curiosity that pops into my head.
As I left SEA last week, walking that “coulda, shoulda been better” walkway carved out of the parking garage, a women was coming the other direction with a standard poodle (like 29" at the shoulders). Dog has a vest on but was lunging this way and that at the confusion of people and electric carts and smells. That’s like animal abuse.
MOfWC, goodness, I remember that story - I would have cleared that Ross in a nanosecond. OMG, I hate snakes.
The stores are between a rock and a hard place. Even legitimate questioning can offend some folks. If the dog does not look like it is doing something obvious (e.g., assisting a blind person), the store personnel can only ask what kinds of tasks the animal is trained to do for the owner. I recall that Costco got dragged into courtroom a few years ago because a customer got upset at that kind of questioning… the employees were following the company’s policy. Costco prevailed defending its very reasonable, ADA-compliant service animal policy, but any lawsuit is a PIA.
It doesn’t even need to get to the level of a court. Just the bad PR would suck from someone posting a video or commenting and having it go viral. People don’t look for details these days and just believe what gets posted. I don’t blame businesses for being hesitant.
There are no animals banned from being emotional support animals. People have brought turtles and hedgehogs and chickens on airplanes claiming they are ESA. They do not have to wear vests or any indication that they are ESA. My niece has her dog wear a vest because other people accept it better, but there is no requirement to do so. My other niece’s cat does not have a vest.
Get ready for a sequel… (ESA) Snakes on a plane…
Anyone else gets a banner ad “Register your ESA for free?”
@twoinanddone said:
Airlines do not have to accept snakes as ESAs. The law states that the airlines do not have to accept “unusual animals” such as snakes, rodents, insects, etc. They can also refuse animals who are displaying behavior that could be dangerous or construed as “threatening” by other passengers.
From United Airlines web site:
[quote]
Airlines are not required to transport unusual animals such as snakes, other reptiles, ferrets, rodents, and spiders. Foreign carriers are not required to transport animals other than dogs.18[/]
waiting for: snakes on a plane meets sharknado
So United doesn’t allow rodents, reptiles, snakes, and ferrets…I guess they don’t know that snakes are reptiles.
But apparently they hire snakes as cabin crew.