[Cagdu] FW: [nagdu] Allergy ruling could lead to ban on pets in airplane cabin

[tina thomas]

Subject: [nagdu] Allergy ruling could lead to ban on pets in airplane cabin

Allergy ruling could lead to ban on pets in airplane cabins
Source:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Allergy+ruling+could+lead+pet
s+airplane+cabins/2184882/story.html
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News ServiceNovember 4, 2009 OTTAWA - The
government agency overseeing airline consumer complaints is considering
declaring allergies a disability - a development that could force Canada's
largest airlines to stop allowing small pets to fly in the passenger cabin
with their owners.
 

The Canadian Transportation Agency is probing four separate complaints
involving Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd., Joan MacDonald, the agency's
director general of dispute resolution, said Wednesday during special
parliamentary hearings into the pet policies at Canada's two main airlines.
 

The federal tribunal will decide whether allowing pets to travel in
passenger cabins represents an undue obstacle to transportation for people
who suffer from severe pet allergies.
 
The agency has hired a doctor who is an allergy specialist to prepare a
report about allergies related to cat and dog dander to help the agency make
a decision, said MacDonald.
 

"Once the pleadings are complete, the agency will decide on the next course
of action, which could include decisions on disability status . . . and
possible corrective measures,"
MacDonald told members of the House of Commons health committee.
 
"Certainly, these types of cases are a good example of the increasing
complexity we face in determining what constitutes a disability under the
Canada Transportation Act."
 
Medical experts from the Universities of British Columbia and Ottawa
testified that Canada's largest airlines are putting the lives of passengers
at risk by allowing pet owners to bring their small animals into airplane
cabins.
 
The issue has become a pressing one since Air Canada rejoined WestJet in
July by upgrading small pets from the baggage compartment to the passenger
cabin, they told parliamentarians.
 
"Although some pet-allergic individual will have only eye or nose symptoms
with exposure, cat and dog allergens are major triggers of severe asthma
attacks in others. These can be life-threatening and a single exposure, even
treated aggressively, can lead to persistent symptoms for days," Dr. Robert
Schellenberg, head of the allergy and immunology division at the University
of British Columbia's faculty of medicine, told members of the committee.
 
"People with allergies can and do have life-threatening asthma attacks, and
the risk of having one on an airplane outweighs the purported commercial
benefits to the airline of allowing passengers to bring their pets on
board," added Dr. Thomas Kovesi, a pediatric respirologist at the Children's
Hospital for Eastern Ontario and indoor air quality expert at the University
of Ottawa.
 
All airlines are required by federal regulation to allow service animals,
such as guide dogs, to travel in passenger cabins, but regular pets aren't
afforded the same treatment.
 
In the case of Air Canada, the airline kicked pets out of the passenger
cabin in September 2006. The following year, Canada's largest airline
stopped allowing pets in the baggage compartment on domestic flights,
forcing travellers to put their pets on cargo flights. In May 2008, Air
Canada reinstated pets as checked luggage.
 
In August 2008, the Canadian Transportation Agency upheld Air Canada's right
to ban small pets from the passenger cabin in response to a consumer
complaint. But the airline reversed its position a few months ago after
facing a barrage of criticism from pet owners, who had the option to travel
with their small pets on WestJet flights.
 
The Calgary-based airline, Air Canada's main domestic competitor, allows up
to two dogs, cats, birds or rabbits to travel in the passenger cabin on
every flight.
 
Jennifer Schenkel, director of communications for the Canadian Lung
Association, testified Wednesday that parliamentarians should ask the
airlines to ban pets on passenger cabins, except for service animals - just
like British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Southwest Airlines.
 
"People who are disabled by lung disease should not be prevented from
travelling on aircraft," said Schenkel, who testified along with Jill Frigon
of the Lung Association of Saskatchewan and Diane Bergeron, a guide dog
user.
 
In cases where a service animal will be present, passengers should be
informed in advance and given the option of remaining on the flight or being
moved to the next available flight at the cost of the airline, Schenkel
said.
 
"This is not about trying to deny people the privilege of travelling with
their pet. Rather, this is about finding an important middle ground that
balances the love of our pets with the health and safety of airline
passengers and crew while accommodating people who are at risk due to their
lung disease."
 
A spokesman for Air Canada said the airline does not release statistics on
the number of complaints it has fielded or medical incidents related to its
pets-in-cabin policy.
 
C Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
   

 


Ginger Bennett Kutsch
Morristown, NJ


 
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