Emotional Support Animals at 40,000 Feet

I am trying to understand the definition of the modern day emotional support animal. It seems, so are the airlines.

The law, in this case, is the 1986 Air Carrier Access Act, which says emotional support animals are allowed to fly free and in the passenger section of the plane. But a few folks have wandered away from dogs and cats into an amazing menagerie.

American Airlines has compiled a list of disqualified emotional support animals including amphibians, snakes, hedgehogs, non-household birds and animals with tusks, horns or hooves---but that excludes miniature horses because of a provision in the Americans with Disabilities Act that stipulates that trained miniature horses (weighing up to 100 pounds) must be treated the same as a trained dog.

I’m not trying to make fun of people attached to their animals. I love my basset hounds because they are good listeners. In fact, they are all ears.

And this commentary doesn’t apply to bonafide service animals. They are easy to define. But every few months there’s another story about an odd support animal trying to get onto a flight.

Remember the black eye Spirit Airlines took when it denied a hamster named Peebles over a year ago? The owner said Spirit told her to either let Peebles loose or flush her down the toilet, which she did. The airline denies it told her to flush Peebles. 

Then there was my favorite story--from 2016-- when Delta allowed a passenger to board with a full sized turkey because the owner claimed the gobbler was an emotional support animal.

Finally proof……Turkeys CAN fly.