Delta Airlines Service Dog Crackdown

Thank goodness. This seems like complete common sense. It's mind boggling that CURRENT policies allow people to jump on planes with "emotional support animals" based on nothing whatsoever. If you (general you) balk at this new requirement, you are definitely part of the problem.
 


And one more thing. Make pax pay for seat for pet ( not ti use seat but legroom space) Unless said dog fits complety under your seat. Surprised not more fights have happened due to a pax having to sit next to a heavier person ( space is limited) with a dog too.
 
It's about time! I can totally understand needing a dog (that has had proper training for their job) for medical reasons (blindness, deafness, diabetic, seizures, etc.) but just to need/want a small dog with you for comfort on a plane? No.

My daughter isn't comfortable with flying but she either takes anxiety medication for the flight, or has a glass of wine and she's fine. :) No support animal needed.
 
I believe that the fact the below statement is necessary has shriveled up the remaining shred of faith I had in humanity, "Delta said it won't accept those critters as comfort animals any more — or other exotic animals such as hedgehogs, ferrets, reptiles or anything with tusks or hooves."

tusks or hooves??? o_O
 


Guess I can no longer fly with my pet opossum as my comfort animal.

In all seriousness this is a good thing. I've witnessed too many comfort animals roaming/being carried down isles during the flight, barking, and appearing anxious around strangers.
 
I believe that the fact the below statement is necessary has shriveled up the remaining shred of faith I had in humanity, "Delta said it won't accept those critters as comfort animals any more — or other exotic animals such as hedgehogs, ferrets, reptiles or anything with tusks or hooves."

tusks or hooves??? o_O

o_O is right! :crowded:
 
I'm still shaking my head over a woman I ran across at an art fair last summer. We were seated near her in the food and drinks area. Overheard more than one person come up and ask if they could pet her dog. "No. He is a working dog, helping to manage my anxiety. He does not react well to anyone but me and might snap."

Clearly a totally legit support animal.
 
I'm still shaking my head over a woman I ran across at an art fair last summer. We were seated near her in the food and drinks area. Overheard more than one person come up and ask if they could pet her dog. "No. He is a working dog, helping to manage my anxiety. He does not react well to anyone but me and might snap."

Clearly a totally legit support animal.
He might snap? A disqualifier for sure. I have seen a few, who would allow the children to pet their service animal. Although, that's been the exception...not the rule.
 
I believe that the fact the below statement is necessary has shriveled up the remaining shred of faith I had in humanity, "Delta said it won't accept those critters as comfort animals any more — or other exotic animals such as hedgehogs, ferrets, reptiles or anything with tusks or hooves."

tusks or hooves??? o_O

I was flying through BWI before Christmas and saw a few kids petting what I thought was a medium sized black dog with a service vest on, until it started oinking!!!! Yep, it was an emotional support pig, it was cute, but I was glad it wasn't on my flight. I fly a lot, and the past year especially the number of pets on my flights, and in the airports, as emotional support animals is unbelievable.
 
He might snap? A disqualifier for sure. I have seen a few, who would allow the children to pet their service animal. Although, that's been the exception...not the rule.

Depends on the job the animal does. Certainly a guide dog shouldn't be handled, even though they love the affection. It may distract the dog from its primary duty. I have seen some handlers just shrug it off if they were sitting down, but they didn't want to seem to be rude.

I remember meeting a woman who said she had a condition where she'd suffer seizures and wouldn't necessarily know how to get home when she came to. Her dog was trained to recognize when she was in this condition and guide her home. She was perfectly OK with people playing with this dog, but let everyone know about her condition. I suppose that would let people know if she had a seizure that it was time to let it work.
 
Thank goodness an airline is finally cracking down. I hope others follow suit

About a year ago I flew from FLL to PVR and there was a woman with TWO "service dogs" in vests. Small littlle terrier types. One was older, with a missing eye and she carried it everywhere, the other ran about tripping people up with the leash and yapping. She kept encouraging the dogs to "give sugar" to people waiting at the gate (lick our ankles) and at one point she sat behind me in the chair whose back as to mine and a dog licked my ear.

I was LIVID about the licking and so bothered that those clearly not trained service animals were allowed on the flight.
 
Did anyone else read the statement?
https://news.delta.com/delta-introd...raveling-service-or-support-animals-effective

New Procedures & Updated Requirements
In compliance with the Air Carrier Access Act, Delta provides in-cabin travel for service and support animals without charge. The guidelines, effective March 1, require that all customers traveling with a service or support animal show proof of health or vaccinations 48 hours in advance. In addition to the current requirement of a letter prepared and signed by a doctor or licensed mental health professional, those with psychiatric service animals and emotional support animals will also need to provide a signed document confirming that their animal can behave to prevent untrained, sometimes aggressive household pets from traveling without a kennel in the cabin. These measures are intended to help ensure that those customers traveling with a trained service or support animal will no longer be at risk of untrained pets attacking their working animal, as has previously been reported.

I don't see a big change here except proving that owners need to prove that their animals are vaccinated and that they sign something that says their animals are trained. The letter from a health professional was already in place. I don't think that anyone brings their emotional support animals or pets on board expecting them to be aggressive attack someone or another animal. They will sign the paper and go on just like before.

I see zero change here.
 
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I think there definitely needs to be better regulation. People take advantage, then it ruins things for the ones that need a working animal. They should be required to carry a license.
 
So, the no-animals-with-hooves thing... What does that mean for miniature horses? They've been considered legitimate service animals for a long time.
 
So, the no-animals-with-hooves thing... What does that mean for miniature horses? They've been considered legitimate service animals for a long time.

That's the Dept of Justice interpretation for enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA doesn't apply to air travel. The Dept of Transportation operates under different rules. I think their rules might even be regulations and not laws written by Congress.
 
So, the no-animals-with-hooves thing... What does that mean for miniature horses? They've been considered legitimate service animals for a long time.

OK - found it in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations:

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2014-title14-vol4/pdf/CFR-2014-title14-vol4-sec382-117.pdf
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-i...9d6d57318a9eb9a&node=se14.4.382_1117&rgn=div8

Title 14: Aeronautics and Space
PART 382—NONDISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF DISABILITY IN AIR TRAVEL
Subpart H—Services on Aircraft

§382.117 Must carriers permit passengers with a disability to travel with service animals?
(a) As a carrier, you must permit a service animal to accompany a passenger with a disability.

(1) You must not deny transportation to a service animal on the basis that its carriage may offend or annoy carrier personnel or persons traveling on the aircraft.

(2) On a flight segment scheduled to take 8 hours or more, you may, as a condition of permitting a service animal to travel in the cabin, require the passenger using the service animal to provide documentation that the animal will not need to relieve itself on the flight or that the animal can relieve itself in a way that does not create a health or sanitation issue on the flight.

(b) You must permit the service animal to accompany the passenger with a disability at any seat in which the passenger sits, unless the animal obstructs an aisle or other area that must remain unobstructed to facilitate an emergency evacuation.

(c) If a service animal cannot be accommodated at the seat location of the passenger with a disability who is using the animal, you must offer the passenger the opportunity to move with the animal to another seat location, if present on the aircraft, where the animal can be accommodated.

(d) As evidence that an animal is a service animal, you must accept identification cards, other written documentation, presence of harnesses, tags, or the credible verbal assurances of a qualified individual with a disability using the animal.

(e) If a passenger seeks to travel with an animal that is used as an emotional support or psychiatric service animal, you are not required to accept the animal for transportation in the cabin unless the passenger provides you current documentation (i.e., no older than one year from the date of the passenger's scheduled initial flight) on the letterhead of a licensed mental health professional (e.g., psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed clinical social worker, including a medical doctor specifically treating the passenger's mental or emotional disability) stating the following:

(1) The passenger has a mental or emotional disability recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—Fourth Edition (DSM IV);

(2) The passenger needs the emotional support or psychiatric service animal as an accommodation for air travel and/or for activity at the passenger's destination;

(3) The individual providing the assessment is a licensed mental health professional, and the passenger is under his or her professional care; and

(4) The date and type of the mental health professional's license and the state or other jurisdiction in which it was issued.

(f) You are never required to accommodate certain unusual service animals (e.g., snakes, other reptiles, ferrets, rodents, and spiders) as service animals in the cabin. With respect to all other animals, including unusual or exotic animals that are presented as service animals (e.g., miniature horses, pigs, monkeys), as a carrier you must determine whether any factors preclude their traveling in the cabin as service animals (e.g., whether the animal is too large or heavy to be accommodated in the cabin, whether the animal would pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others, whether it would cause a significant disruption of cabin service, whether it would be prohibited from entering a foreign country that is the flight's destination). If no such factors preclude the animal from traveling in the cabin, you must permit it to do so. However, as a foreign carrier, you are not required to carry service animals other than dogs.

(g) Whenever you decide not to accept an animal as a service animal, you must explain the reason for your decision to the passenger and document it in writing. A copy of the explanation must be provided to the passenger either at the airport, or within 10 calendar days of the incident.

(h) You must promptly take all steps necessary to comply with foreign regulations (e.g., animal health regulations) needed to permit the legal transportation of a passenger's service animal from the U.S. into a foreign airport.

(i) Guidance concerning the carriage of service animals generally is found in the preamble of this rule. Guidance on the steps necessary to legally transport service animals on flights from the U.S. into the United Kingdom is found in 72 FR 8268-8277, (February 26, 2007).

[Doc. No. DOT-OST-2004-19482, 73 FR 27665, May 13, 2008, as amended at 74 FR 11471, Mar. 18, 2009]​
 

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