Originally Posted by TransWorld

My emotional support porcupine goes with me everywhere. His name is Peanuts. If a PAX is allergic to Peanuts, they get voted off the island.

Originally Posted by joepilot

Emotional support animals are not required to be "certified".

The Owner needs to be certified by a licensed mental health professional as being emotionally unstable enough to need the emotional support animal.


There are a large number of people, in a large number of jobs (including pilots), who cannot afford to be diagnosed as emotionally unstable.


Making these people get this mental health diagnosis (every year) will eliminate most people claiming this fraudulently. It has worked for me in my rental business.


Joe

Originally Posted by Beaverbeliever

Just playing devil's advocate here, but I've heard people who go the ESA route when traveling by air just to avoid checking their animals. The number of animals that die every year while under the airlines supervision is higher than I would have guessed. Not excusing people who defraud the airlines to allow their animals to fly in coach with them, but certainly a different perspective.

Originally Posted by Beaverbeliever

Just playing devil's advocate here, but I've heard people who go the ESA route when traveling by air just to avoid checking their animals. The number of animals that die every year while under the airlines supervision is higher than I would have guessed. Not excusing people who defraud the airlines to allow their animals to fly in coach with them, but certainly a different perspective.

Originally Posted by at6d

The airlines have rights, too. From the CFR 382.117:

(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).

Originally Posted by Rahlifer

Some people absolutely rely on service animals to go about their daily lives. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people nowadays just use it as an excuse to legally take their pets anywhere and everywhere. Thousands of websites gleefully advertise and sell “service animal” vests and ID cards. I normally don’t give a **** what most other people do, but I do get annoyed when I see someone’s pet doing it’s business on a restaurant floor or hopping up and licking the produce in a grocery store. Yes, I’ve witnessed both.

https://www.google.com/search?ei=emW....3.grV6SqkrueA

Originally Posted by at6d

If you are disabled for real, the ADA has provisions in place.