[Cagdu] FW: ] Is That Dog on Your Flight Really a Service Pet?

[Lisa Irving]

Last night I was reading an article produced by a reputable news outlet. Mid-way through the article I came across an emotional support animal certification website, emotionalpetsupport.com. For $99.00 anyone can purchase the diagnosis and signature from a clinical psychologist. 

 

It is my understanding that it’s unethical for a clinician  in one state to diagnose a patient in another state. Also, last I knew fraud is illegal. 

 

From,

Lisa Irving  

 

From: cagdu-bounces at nfbcal.org [mailto:cagdu-bounces at nfbcal.org] On Behalf Of Tina Thomas
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 10:43 PM
To: cagdu at nfbcal.org
Subject: [Cagdu] FW: ] Is That Dog on Your Flight Really a Service Pet?

 

Subject: [seeing-eye] Is That Dog on Your Flight Really a Service Pet?

 

Is That Dog on Your Flight Really a Service Pet?

More fliers are trying to bring their pets along as carry-on animals. 

 By  Scott McCartney 

Feb. 1, 2017  Wall Street Journal

 

Three hours into the five-hour flight from Philadelphia to California, Bobbie Fields was wheezing and using her inhaler, allergic to the long-haired dog one row behind her. It’s becoming a frequent problem for her–more passengers are dogs and cats.

“For all other allergies, like peanuts, airlines go out of their way to make sure it’s not a problem. But not for animals,” she says.

Airlines and passengers say more animals are coming onboard. And more are easily evading expensive airline fees by declaring their pets as service dogs or emotional-support animals. Cute poodles and terriers toddle through airports with ill-fitting vests. There’s no specific data telling us how many animals are in the cabin, much less which belong to owners who really need them versus those trying to game the system.

The Transportation Department is trying to crack down and says it hopes to propose new rules later this year. A 2016 effort to get airlines and disability groups to recommend new standards failed. But the DOT says this issue remains an area of concern and it plans to come up with something on its own.

 

Service animals are dogs with special training. Emotional-support animals are different and are defined as animals that provide comfort to help their owner with a mental disability. PHOTO: BRANDON WADE/GETTY IMAGES 

The Americans with Disabilities Act defines service animals as dogs with specific training, with a few other exceptions such as trained miniature horses. But the Air Carrier Access Act that governs airlines is much broader. It allows for both service animals and emotional-support animals—pets that provide comfort to people with mental disabilities. Both kinds of support animals are allowed out of pet carriers and exempt from airline fees.

Mental-health advocates say emotional-support animals can be necessary and useful for many people, from veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder to people with severe flying anxiety. In theory, the law doesn’t allow for everyone who is calmed by their cat: Passengers with emotional-support animals are supposed to have a medically diagnosed disability and have a verification letter from the past 12 months from a mental-health professional.

Groups that support people with disabilities who rely on highly trained service dogs complain household pets take spots on planes they need--airlines sometimes limit the number of cabin dogs and cats on each flight.

FARES FOR PETS

Carrying dogs and cats on flights can cost as much as another seat. A sampling of one-way pet fares

•              American $125

•              Delta $125

•              United $125

•              Spirit $110

•              Alaska $100

•              Allegiant $100

•              JetBlue $100

•              Virgin America $100

•              Southwest $95

•              Frontier $75 

Another worry: Service animal users “are too often forced to come into contact with inadequately trained and over-stressed animals whose owners exercise insufficient control,” says Bradley Morris, government relations director of Psychiatric Service Dog Partners in Rock Hill, S.C., and a member of the DOT’s advisory committee on accessibility. Service dogs, meticulously trained for several months to behave in public settings, must sometimes be retired if bad behavior is triggered by one of these encounters.

Denny Leary, president of the Gateway Warrior Foundation in Fenton, Mo., which raises funds for service dogs for disabled veterans, says when he sees “service poodles” at airports, he asks in a friendly way what the dog can do. “People stumble all over themselves. Most say the dog is for protection, but every dog protects its owner,” he says. “You’re just taking advantage of the system.”

When airlines pushed fees for in-cabin pets higher, up to $125 each way on several carriers in 2009, a cottage industry sprang up of tools to save money, such as donning a $40 service dog vest or buying an emotional-support animal letter for $99.95. Diagnosis is made over the phone.

Another incentive: People are wary of transporting animals as cargo, which can be both expensive and hazardous. In the most recent 12 months reported by the DOT, 26 animals died during airline transportation and 21 were injured.

 

When airlines pushed fees for in-cabin pets higher, up to $125 each way on several carriers in 2009, a cottage industry sprang up of tools to save money. PHOTO: ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS 

DOT says wearing a service-dog vest “may not be sufficient evidence that the animal is, in fact, a legitimate service animal.” Airlines can ask passengers what tasks or functions the animal performs, but they can’t ask about a passenger’s disability. For emotional-support animals, airlines can only ask for the required letter. There are few other rules, though Delta prohibits hedgehogs, ferrets, insects, rodents, snakes, spiders and farm poultry from flying as emotional-support animals.

DOT formed a study group under its accessibility advisory committee to make recommendations on the appropriate definition of service animals and ways to reduce false claims. Participants say the airline industry pushed for adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act definition, limiting service animals mostly to dogs. Disability advocates pushed for removing medical-certification requirements, which they see as a hassle and promoting classification as patients.

Several groups got together recently and submitted a compromise recommendation to DOT, supported by service-dog, disability and veterans groups, plus some airline and flight-attendant union representatives. It would require passengers to fill out a questionnaire that warns of penalties. The form could be stored in a passenger’s airline frequent-flier profile.

Mr. Morris thinks it will cut down on fraud and ignorance and still allow for necessary support animals.

As for allergies, airlines say they try to reseat affected passenger like Ms. Fields. Limits onboard can be generous: American’s limit is seven per flight, not including service animals. But Ms. Fields would like airlines to track where pets will be on planes as well as where people with allergies have reserved seats and keep the two separate. She and her husband fly frequently to visit their children on the West Coast and always select extra legroom seats in coach. When a long-haired dog is nearby, moving to another seat typically means trading down to less room.

So far, she hasn’t had to use the EpiPen she carries in-flight. “It’s just uncomfortable,” she says.

 

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