US Dept of Transportation moving for new regulations barring emotional support animals on aircraft and requiring proof of training for service animals

[bcla]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dot...pport-animals-aboard-planes/story?id=68452828
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/travel/service-animal-airplane.html
The proposed rules would no longer require airlines to allow emotional support animals. Might also limit service animals to dogs. They would also require an attestation that a dog has been trained for a specific service duty, as well as a check in time a minimum one hour before the flight.

 

[L&Lfan]

Finally! I hope they succeed.

And I speak from experience having a woman’s emotional support pug drool on my shoe and shed on my pants leg on a flight from Hartford to Orlando. Miserable trip.

 

[KayaWildfire]

I hope they implement these rules for all public places. The number of dogs we saw at Disney and flying there was really ridiculous. And there looked to be about one legitimate service dog among them all.

 

[DLgal]

I hope they implement these rules for all public places. The number of dogs we saw at Disney and flying there was really ridiculous. And there looked to be about one legitimate service dog among them all.

I am getting really tired of seeing them in supermarkets and Target too.

 

[serenitynow]

Hurray!

 

[L&Lfan]

If you are so damn fragile that you need an animal to travel with you for “support”, stay the hell home or drive there!

 

[Planogirl]

This is good news and hopefully just the beginning.

 

[MamaBelle4]

I am getting really tired of seeing them in supermarkets and Target too.

Yes!! I don't care how well behaved your dog it, if it isn't a support animal, I don't want it near my groceries or in a cart that I may use to put my groceries in.

 

[LSUmiss]

Yes!! I don't care how well behaved your dog it, if it isn't a support animal, I don't want it near my groceries or in a cart that I may use to put my groceries in.

While I like the change & think the ESA thing is just most ridiculous, ppl (especially kids) are much grosser as far as things like grocery stores. Of my 2 dogs & 1 son, the dogs have never made me sick & are actually a lot cleaner in general lol (DS 21 mos). Ppl are absolutely disgusting.

 

[disneychrista]

I would like to see some type of OFFICIAL regulation & licensing for ADA support animals (dog or miniature horse) that a business could ask to see to verify that the animal is truly a support animal. The license would not have to reveal anything about WHY the person needs the support animal. Just that it is an actual support animal.

 

[Pooh2]

Glad to hear this!

 

[design_mom]

I know that air travel is covered under regulations separate from the ADA, but it will be interesting to see if they are able to implement the part about requiring documentation, or limiting what could be considered a service animal under the ADA.

As for places like grocery stores and Target, the ADA specifically says that those places are NOT allowed to ask for documentation for a service dog and the service dog does not have to be "professionally trained." I definitely agree that people are abusing it... but I also feel like the stores are kind of handcuffed. Unless the dog is creating a public menace, I'd be reluctant to intervene if I were the store
.

https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html
Q5. Does the ADA require service animals to be professionally trained?


A. No. People with disabilities have the right to train the dog themselves and are not required to use a professional service dog training program.


Q7. What questions can a covered entity's employees ask to determine if a dog is a service animal?


A. In situations where it is not obvious that the dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two specific questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Staff are not allowed to request any documentation for the dog, require that the dog demonstrate its task, or inquire about the nature of the person's disability.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

How dare you meanies celebrate new regulations putting the squeeze on my emotional support 23 foot python. She gives great hugs!!!! She's all love and affection and develops a crush on small rodents.

 

[DisLiss]

I'm glad to hear this. Certain animals are just more inclined to work well in public situations and places than others. So creating a limited list of acceptable animals sounds reasonable to me. And I think it's more than reasonable to ask people to produce some sort of proof that the animal has been trained to be a service dog. Now, I know it's not hard to get certification of sorts these days, but I'm a firm believer in baby steps.

If there are 20 people in the airport claiming that their animal is a service animal, and 5 of them have internet-based, home printed certificates that will pass inspection, that doesn't change the fact that 10 others probably have nothing at all. So it at least helps to a degree.

I simply feel that when more and more people are out there claiming their animal must be with them for one reason or another, it makes life harder on the folks who have always relied on their service dog. Especially those without an obvious medical issue. Some people who are blind do not carry a white cane to clue you in. People with seizure disorders don't come with a stamp on their forehead. And so on. But they require those dogs. And they require the public to treat those dogs as service animals, not pets. And I think if the public becomes inundated with every sort of service animal for every sort of reason, people start to treat them more like little fun critters to pet and ooh and ahh over when they see them out in public. People whose safety absolutely is dependent on the focus of their animal don't need that kind of thing happening, so I'm glad to see that there may be some sort of baby steps taken to reduce the number of non-necessary animals being brought certain places.

Please note I'm not discounting the difficulties of people actually suffering from anxiety disorders. I've dealt with them myself. But I didn't try to force places to allow me to bring in the animal of my choice everywhere I went.

 

[MamaBelle4]

While I like the change & think the ESA thing is just most ridiculous, ppl (especially kids) are much grosser as far as things like grocery stores. Of my 2 dogs & 1 son, the dogs have never made me sick & are actually a lot cleaner in general lol (DS 21 mos). Ppl are absolutely disgusting.

It is so funny, I KNEW that this would be the response to my post.

And yes, people are gross, but people of all ages belong in the grocery store and if I know my kids are sick or their diaper leaked or something, I take the minute to clean/wipe down where they were. I usually use the sani wipes to begin with.

But when you have a dog in the basket, where do you wipe down? The entire basket? Dogs have gross paws, even when they are meticulously cleaned. Traces of fecal matter, urine and goodness only knows what else.

Someone's dog leaves traces of fecal matter and urine in my shopping cart. I put my bag of grapes (with holes all over the bag) in the basket. Gross. And easily avoidable.

 

[Dznypal]

this emotional support deal has gotten way out of hand--something should have been done from the get go so I wouldnt have gotten this far--

we once saw an older man pushing a stroller type for animals with a dog in it-through a casino and into the buffett

give me a break like it was said earlier if your that emotional unsteady you need more then a dog in a stroller--

also at the food court in same casino the person had the dog sitting on the seat next to him in the booth--

arent service animals supposed to lay at your feet under the table and in both cases nothing was said

 

[LSUmiss]

It is so funny, I KNEW that this would be the response to my post.

And yes, people are gross, but people of all ages belong in the grocery store and if I know my kids are sick or their diaper leaked or something, I take the minute to clean/wipe down where they were. I usually use the sani wipes to begin with.

But when you have a dog in the basket, where do you wipe down? The entire basket? Dogs have gross paws, even when they are meticulously cleaned. Traces of fecal matter, urine and goodness only knows what else.

Someone's dog leaves traces of fecal matter and urine in my shopping cart. I put my bag of grapes (with holes all over the bag) in the basket. Gross. And easily avoidable.

I wish I had that much faith in ppl cleaning up after themselves. Ppl are grosser & can pass things along to other ppl. Most animals cannot. The main reason I like this change is safety. I’ve seen a woman bring a massive, not well-trained, pitbull that she had no control over & claim it was an ESA. This was in a children’s clinic! But Mgmt refused to confront her b/c they were afraid of ADA laws.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

I'm glad to hear this. I hope one day Disney World will do the same.

 

[DisLiss]

we once saw an older man pushing a stroller type for animals with a dog in it-through a casino and into the buffett

I try to be a very empathetic person, but as I said, as someone who went through a crippling bout of anxiety for an extended period of time several years ago, I do find this kind of behavior hard to understand, despite really trying. I realize everyone suffers from things differently and to different degrees, and with different means of coping; but when I was in really rough shape, no dog would have been enough to get me to a casino. And once I was more or less capable of going out for a day to someplace like a casino, then there were others ways in which I could have made that day work for me other than an animal. Honestly, bringing in an animal, needing to care for it, keep it behaving appropriately, and being concerned about what others would say about it would have made my anxiety far worse than if I had gone without the dog. So I do find that I struggle to always understand when people bring emotional support animals int certain situations. And an airplane is definitely one of those situations.

I do admit that I know a few folks who self-trained their dogs and got a "certificate" for them, and those dogs are not trained the way a professionally trained service animal is. And while I understand that other people may do a far better job of self-training than these folks did, those examples probably do make it harder for me to understand, because those dogs caused their owners stress when they were out, which obviously seemed backwards to me.

Q5. Does the ADA require service animals to be professionally trained?


A. No. People with disabilities have the right to train the dog themselves and are not required to use a professional service dog training program.

I understand this rule. Because to not have it would lead to unfairly preventing people of certain financial status or medical coverage from obtaining a service animal. And that would be completely wrong.

However, this rule can lead to service animals or ESAs out there who do not act the part, and I think that hurts everyone. And it can possibly be actually dangerous to the person who needs the animal and to others around them.

In a more fair world we could require professional training and people who need a service or ESA would be eligible for free or discounted services based on need. Of course, we know how fair the world is.

 

[bcla]

And they require the public to treat those dogs as service animals, not pets. And I think if the public becomes inundated with every sort of service animal for every sort of reason, people start to treat them more like little fun critters to pet and ooh and ahh over when they see them out in public. People whose safety absolutely is dependent on the focus of their animal don't need that kind of thing happening, so I'm glad to see that there may be some sort of baby steps taken to reduce the number of non-necessary animals being brought certain places.

A dog is still a dog though. Most people I've seen with service animals (or any working animal) seems to understand that these animals still need to feel affection and not just be robots. I certainly wouldn't deliberately approach a service animal to pet it, but I've been there when my kid got interested seeing a dog (perhaps in training) where the handler said it was OK to pet it. I think it might even be part of their training to focus on the task at hand even when there are other people looking to pet the animal.

I've seen one dog that was trained to bring a woman home if she suffered a seizure and didn't wake up fully lucid. But at all other times this dog was absolutely a pet.