Two weeks from now, pot-bellied pigs, mini horses, or peacocks will no longer be welcome aboard Alaska Airlines flights amid an industry-wide crackdown on emotional support animals.
The Seattle-based airline announced changes to its service animals policy on Tuesday, stating that the airline will no longer allow emotional support animals on its flights starting Jan. 11.
Alaska only transports service dogs that are specially trained to perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified person with a disability, the airline said in a press release.
Pigs Don’t Fly: Alaska Airlines announced Tuesday that it will no longer admit emotional support animals like this jet-setting pig starting January 11
In early December, the U.S. Department of Transportation said it will no longer require airlines to make the same accommodations for emotional support animals as they do for service dogs.
Alaska only transports service dogs, which are specially trained to perform tasks for a person with
Alaska Airlines is the first airline to ban emotional support animals on its flights
The move comes just weeks after the U.S. Department of Transportation said it will no longer require airlines to provide the same accommodations for emotional support animals as they do for service dogs.
“This regulatory change is welcome news as it will help us reduce nuisance onboard while continuing to host our guests traveling with qualified service animals,” said Ray Prentice, Alaska Airlines’ director of customer interests.
Under the revised policy, Alaska will not accept more than two service dogs per guest in the cabin. Passengers must complete a form on the airline’s website to confirm that their animal is a legitimate service dog, has been specially trained and vaccinated, and will behave properly during the flight.
Passengers who booked their flights before January 11 may travel with their emotional support animals until February 28, but no later.
The DOT’s new rule to restrain emotional support animals, announced on December 2, aims to ease years of tension between airlines and passengers who bring their pets on board for free by saying they need them have for emotional help. Under a long-standing department policy, all passengers needed were a note from a health professional.
Airlines argued that passengers abused the situation to bring a menagerie of animals on board, including cats, turtles, pot-bellied pigs, kangaroos, pandas and, in one case, a peacock named Dexter.
The agency said it was rewriting the rules in part because passengers carrying unusual animals on board “eroded the public’s confidence in legitimate service animals.”
It also cited the increasing frequency of people ‘fraudulently representing their pets as service animals’ and an increase in misbehavior by emotional support animals, ranging from peeing on the carpet to biting other passengers and flight crew.
Frequent fliers: Airlines argued that passengers abused the situation to bring on a menagerie of animals, including cats and ducks
The DOT said it was rewriting the rules, in part because passengers carrying unusual animals, like this panda, on board “ eroded the public’s confidence in legitimate service animals. ”
The revised policy will force passengers with support animals to check them into the cargo hold – and pay a pet fee – or leave them at home. The agency estimated that airlines hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic will win up to $ 59.6 million a year in pet fees.
The number of animals on airplanes soared several years ago, and a cottage industry grew around the provision of papers, doctor’s notes and even dog vests for support animals.
According to the final rule of the DOT, which will take effect in early January, a service animal is a dog trained to help a person with a physical or psychiatric disability. Veteran advocates and others had pushed for the inclusion of psychiatric service dogs.
Airlines for America, a trade group for the largest US airlines, said the new rule will protect airline passengers and employees and help people travel with trained service dogs.
“The days of Noah’s Ark in the air will hopefully come to an end,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told USA Today.
Supporters of emotional support animals are confused about DOT’s new rule, arguing that the animals help them with anxiety, post-traumatic, or other issues that would prevent them from traveling.
While it is no secret that we are still a long way from a truly accessible transportation system in this country, the DOT rule will only make the existing inequalities worse for people with disabilities who participate in air travel and instead almost exclusively address the to represent the interests of the airline. industry, ”Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, said in a statement, as The New York Times reported.
Defines a service animal as a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks on behalf of a person with a disability;
One of the most bizarre service animals in recent years is Dexter the peacock