The flight was supposed to be simple — less than three hours in the air and they’d land in Greensboro, North Carolina. But during that short jaunt from Dallas in 2019, an American Airlines flight attendant was bit by a passenger’s dog, requiring five stitches.
Why were there pets in the cabin, you ask? Ah, this was no “pet.” Fido was flying commercial as one passenger’s “emotional support animal.”
As of this week, the airlines have banned “emotional support animals” from flying onboard. They can fly in cargo with the other pets, but only licensed service dogs are allowed in the cabin now.
The requirements on those service dogs are also much stricter. Owners must fill out a federal form verifying their dog’s training, vaccinations, and behavior or face potential fines for lying. And there’s been plenty of lying in recent years. Anyone who couldn’t imagine leaving Fluffy at a dog boarder or letting her fly crated in the cargo bay felt fine lying. “Yes, ma’am, this is a service animal.”
The trouble began in 2008 when the Department of Transportation broadened the rules to allow passengers to bring emotional support animals as well as service dogs on flights to reduce anxiety onboard. But travelers quickly began to take advantage of this rule, since it is almost impossible to verify whether a pet is a legitimate emotional support animal. As long as the pet was wearing an “Emotional Support Animal” vest and the owner had an ESA license, both of which are available for purchase online, the airlines had to allow the animals in the cabin. By 2019, more than 1.1 million people were traveling with ESAs, according to Airlines for America.
DOT officials began to investigate complaints from the airlines and found that emotional support animals were responsible for a significant percentage of issues onboard. Travelers with disabilities said their highly trained service dogs were running into problems with emotional support dogs or peacocks that were untrained and sometimes aggressive. Delta Air Lines reported an 84% spike in urinations, defecations, and bitings from 2016 to 2019. Some people find emotional support in the oddest things.
The American Airlines flight attendant attacked in 2019 was just one of many. That same year, Marlin Jackson filed a lawsuit against Delta Air Lines and a fellow passenger after he was attacked by the passenger’s dog. Jackson bled so badly that a row of seats later had to be removed from the plane, the lawsuit said.
Disabilities groups have asked for an exception since legitimate ESAs do help people with autism, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. But, unfortunately, the number of people who took advantage of the rules far outweighed the number of people who followed them, the DOT said.
So, for now, travelers hoping to bring their pets with them must either pay an additional $125 each way to store their pets below the plane or spend thousands of dollars to train and license their pets as legitimate service animals. Or you could do what most dog owners do: Get in the car and drive.
