Walking through US airports recently I was amazed by the number of people openly walking their “emotional support” dogs through the terminal.
When we lived in Europe, we would often take our big dog (not a service animal) w us to hotels & restaurants. There’d often be other dogs there too. Our local supermarket permitted dogs as long as you carried them (ours was too big for that).
I am not a big fan, but am not a pet person. People have a hard enough time managing their children in these places, many won’t be any better with pets.
In restaurants our dog would lay still quietly at our feet, unless he saw another dog in the restaurant. Then he would still lay still at our feet but whine.
There are a lot more of them on the subways here in New York. It doesn’t bother me but it would be a problem for people who are allergic or phobic on a crowded train. (I occasionally take my small dog in a shoulder bag on the subway to the vet or something.)
I love dogs. I have a dog. I train dogs. However, I don’t feel that dogs belong everywhere. I worry that all these “emotional support dogs” are going to ruin it for the guide dogs and the true service dogs. I really do not want to see dogs in the grocery store and hey, if it is fair for little dogs then what about large dogs. Can’t you see a great dane checking out the meat department? I do, however, like it when a restaurant allows dogs to come on to a outdoor patio. I find that such a plus especially when we are travelling in the summer and can’t leave Rover in the car.
Recently I was in Seattle - people there take their dogs everywhere even to the office (Amazon allows this). Stores who don’t allow dogs post signs (instead of the opposite in most places).
On a recent red-eye, the couple I was seated with brought their tiny dog and kept it in a carrier. It got out twice while we were all sleeping. I had the aisle seat and between the waking me up while climbing back and forth over me and the general hubbub when they enlisted the flight attendants to help in their search I was not a happy camper. I think the flight attendants were even less so!
I assume that most of, if not all, the dogs I see in airports are not “therapy” dogs but “merely” pets that the owners want to take with them on their travels. The owners pay for that privilege. I don’t object.
The other thread wasn’t about sneaking pet. It was about cheating and getting their pet certified as a “pet therapy” or “emotional support” animal (which is different, as onward said above, from a service dog or guide dog). People falsely believe that the “emotional support” certification allows them to bring their pet into stores and restaurants. That is not correct. It only affects housing and air travel. But, for those establishments where animals are not permitted, many employees in stores, restaurants, etc do not want to look mean-spirited to other customers and advise a customer with a dog that their pet therapy animal is not permitted in their establishment. Its a lose-lose situation.
Here is one airline’s policy; it seems to allow paid-for pets to not be crated in the terminal as long as the passenger is not yet at the gate: “Pets must be secured in the pet carrier at all times while in the gate area, during boarding/deplaning, and they must remain in the carrier for the entire duration of the flight. Failure to follow this requirement may result in denial of transportation of the pet onboard Southwest Airlines.”
I am a pet lover, but I don’t believe that everyone is ; therefore , I don’t think they belong everywhere. I don’t particularly love seeing pets where food is available. If certain establishments are pet friendly , I have no problem with it because people have the option to go to that establishment or not. @onward I share your same concern regarding service animals.