Veterans groups cheer new airline rules on service animals Nine Line News Team December 3, 2020 Nine Line News 543 This week the Department of Transportation (DOT) it is revising its Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) regulation on the transportation of service animals. The DOT will no longer consider “emotional support animals” to be service animals, which are required by law to be allowed to fly with passengers on commercial airlines. Military veterans see the new rules as a double win: service dogs are now included for psychiatric condition and the stricter regulations reduce the safety risk untrained animals and pets carried as “emotional support animals” pose to actual working service dogs. The revised Air Carrier Access Act rules define a service animal as “a DOG that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability,” according to the DOT’s release. Any other animal will be classified as a pet, and either must go into the cargo hold, or be small enough to fit into a vented carry-on bag that fits under an airplane seat in order to travel. Airlines may choose to continue transporting “emotional support animals” at no charge at their digression, but that party may be over, considering several large airline organizations, including the Regional Airline Association, the National Air Carrier Association and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants have long advocated for stricter regulations. Rory Diamond, CEO of K-9s for Warriors, said “It may not seem like a huge deal for everyone, but it certainly is a big deal to a veteran who is afraid to travel with their service dog because of emotional support lizards, kangaroos or fake service dogs.” Diamond’s organization trains dogs to help veterans with traumatic brain injuries and mental health disorders. “Look, I love my dog just as much as anyone else, but it’s gotten too easy to go online, buy a vest and have a fake service dog,” Diamond said. “We are thrilled with this new rule. We spend a huge amount of time and effort training service dogs. Now they can fly with confidence.” In 2008, the Department of Transportation began requiring airlines to let passengers bring animals on board if they had a note from a doctor saying the animal was needed for emotional support. If you give people an inch, they eventually take a…pig. In 2014, a 50-pound pig became disruptive before takeoff and was booted off a U.S. Airways flight. Last year, a miniature horse, Flirty, accompanied her handler on a regional flight from Chicago to Omaha. Airlines had already started tightening their own rules after the situation was getting out of control. In 2018, American Airlines banned goats, insects (this is my emotional support insect?), ferrets and hedgehogs. United banned support animals for long haul flights, barred all animals but cats and dogs, and banished emotional support kittens and puppies from passenger cabins. The new DOT rule, which goes into effect in 30 days, defines a service animal as a dog, regardless of breed or type, trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a disabled person. In addition, the rule: • No longer considers an emotional support animal to be a service animal; • Requires airlines to treat psychiatric service animals the same as other service animals; • Allows airlines to require forms developed by DOT attesting to a service animal’s health, behavior and training, and if taking a long flight attesting that the service animal can either not relieve itself, or can relieve itself in a sanitary manner; • Allows airlines to require individuals traveling with a service animal to provide the DOT service animal form(s) up to 48 hours in advance of the date of travel if the passenger’s reservation was made prior to that time; • Prohibits airlines from requiring passengers with a disability who are traveling with a service animal to physically check-in at the airport instead of using the online check-in process; • Allows airlines to require a person with a disability seeking to travel with a service animal to provide the DOT service animal form(s) at the passenger’s departure gate on the date of travel; • Allows airlines to limit the number of service animals traveling with a single passenger with a disability to two service animals; • Allows airlines to require a service animal to fit within its handler’s foot space on the aircraft; • Allows airlines to require that service animals be harnessed, leashed, or tethered at all times in the airport and on the aircraft; • Continues to allow airlines to refuse transportation to service animals that exhibit aggressive behavior and that pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others; and • Continues to prohibit airlines from refusing to transport a service animal solely based on breed. Woof!
