The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed a new rule Friday that would allow airlines to restrict service animals allowed on flights to professionally-trained dogs only.
Under the proposed rule, people with disabilities may board with their service dogs while animals that provide emotional support, comfort and companionship would be treated as pets rather than service animals. As such, they would be subject to airlines’ established travel guidelines (travel in carriers that fit under the seat or, for larger animals, in cargo holds).
Open to public comment for 60 days, the proposed rule would also tighten restrictions on service animals. Those restrictions could include requiring passengers traveling with a service animal to arrive one hour before other passengers to verify their animal’s credentials, capping the number of service animals a single passenger can travel with and mandating that a service animal be leashed and harnessed.
The proposal is the culmination of a years-long clash between airlines, passengers and disability rights groups over the distinction between service animals and emotional support animals — a debate stoked by passengers claiming unusual animals such as iguanas, pigs, ducks and peacocks as necessary to maintain their emotional equilibrium.
“When there are abuses in the system it’s the people with disabilities who suffer,” a DOT official said on a media call, Travel + Leisure reports. “Access is really important and when we do look at our responsibilities, access is one of the most — if not the most — important.”
Currently, passengers wanting to fly with their pet can download a form from the particular airline’s website. The passenger’s mental health professional provides a justification for why that particular passenger needs to fly with an emotional support animal. Carriers assert that existing rules are too lax, resulting in a surge of passengers claiming ordinary pets as support animals to avoid paying fees.
According to DOT statistics, airlines received more than 3,000 complaints related to animal behavior on flights in 2018. Reported incidents include animals that bit other passengers or flight attendants, scuffled with other pets or left messes behind for crew to clean up.
Union groups such as the Association of Flight Attendants hail the move which they say will protect the rights of passengers with “legitimate” service needs and ensure the health, safety and security of all passengers and crew onboard their planes. Some disability groups and mental health professionals concur with the DOT proposal suggesting that untrained support animals could endanger service animals and pose serious liability issues. This view counters the argument of many passengers who loathe the proposed restrictions and say they need their support animals to quell anxiety surrounding air travel.
While service animals allowed on planes would include those that help people with psychiatric disorders, passengers would need to provide documentation that these animals underwent the same level of training as those assisting passengers with physical disorders.
The proposal would not allow carriers to discriminate on the basis of dog breed. In a landmark decision last year, the DOT struck down Delta Airlines’ ban on pit-bull service dogs citing a lack of evidence that any particular dog breed is inherently dangerous. Airlines can, however, determine whether or not an individual dog — regardless of breed — poses a danger to passengers or crew.
Within a few months, many air travelers may be winging it without the emotional support and furry companionship upon which they’ve come to rely.
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Next week, Rescue Legacy weighs in on the DOT proposal.