Emotional support animals on plane

[Alloftheboys]

News article about an emotional support dog on a plane which bit a child.

1. Emotional support animals are not the same as service animals e.g. Guide dogs so may not be trained at all.
2. Child was told to stay away and then the dogs teeth grazed her forehead.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/womans-emotional-support-dog-bites-12143433

Should the dog have been allowed on the flight? There is nothing to say legally that it should have been.
Owner did tell girl to stay away but should the dog have been muzzled on the plane?

Oh well, that support hamster was really important to her, wasn't it? Can't take it on the flight so flush it down the bog. She was also its support human. The ignorance and stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me. What a cruel woman, I hope karma gets her.

Tbh it would never have occurred to me to need to check, but certainly I will in future!

Haven’t RTFT but is this worth watching? I enjoyed the first movie with the snakes.

@DontCall I have a theory that you should always be slightly afraid of swans and horses. Look like I'll be adding seagulls to the list.

@Clem7

I love how MN teaches
Emotional support peacock

Three words I would never have used

I wonder how much Ryanair would charge for this? £50 for a dog perhaps, £100 for a peacock?

There is no official register in the UK for Emotional Support Animals so there is no training for these animals. I have known people who have managed to claim for certain services because they have a note from their doctor which states their pet helps them with their psychiatric condition but that i snot the same thing. In the US however you can have a registered ESA in some states. I am not sure whetehr that means the animal is actually trained in any way or whether it is just that the patient finds it comfoting and therapeutic to have the animal with them. A college student in the US who had mental health problems and a spinal condition won a lawsuit to have her guinea pigs with her in college lectures to help calm her down when she was feeling panicky. So, yeah, ESA are a thing but not in the same way Assistance Dogs are, for example. An assistance dog is trained to perform a task like get help if their owner is having an epileptic fit, or if they have mobility issues the dog can fetch things for them

Lucicsky A hamster woudl most likely not travel well on a plane, so a poor choice of ESA, anyway. I can understand a dog, but a hamster???

Forallthesaints Ryanair would not allow this in the first place. I am pretty sure. They were in the papers for denying help to a disabled passenger a while back, so I doubt they would be sympathetic to people in emotional distress needing an animal to help them travel.

poor hamster though. So

Unfortunately too many children are not taught how to behave around dogs - no wonder there are so many cases of children getting bitten.

Guide dogs for the blind cannot be refused by the airline. They will be given the seat next to their user. Although they will be expected to remain on the floor. You cannot object to their presence and if you find yourself sat next to one and complain unless someone will swop seats with you you will be asked if you wish to leave the plane. Guide dog users are usually upgraded to the bulkhead seats as there is more space for the dog.

Which would be refused by the airline so you would still be sat next to the guide dog

There’s someone who has an emotional support turkey

here

Oh and if you’ve never come across the lovely Drew Lynch and his service dog check out his YouTube channel. Lots of videos of him and his dog on planes, having issues in shops, getting kicked out of hotels, etc.

Presumably under a Labour government you could say you identify as a dog, and your DP can say they need you as emotional support, so you could travel for free!

It has to qualify to be an emotional support animal. You can’t just say this dog helps my anxiety. So I think that question is stupid

It's not stupid at all. All you need is a note from a dr saying this dog helps your anxiety, and that's not hard to get in many places.

It shouldn't have been on the plane at all

I have, perhaps, found this thread unreasonably hilarious

Meet Colin, my support tarantula.

It's an enormous piss-take. And that woman that sat on the toilet for 10mins after flushing her hamster down the loo crying . The world has gone mad.

Yes emotional support animals in theory need to be approved by a doctor. But in America there are plenty of online doctors who’ll certify your animal for a fee, so it’s all a load of bollocks really. It’s a shame, because animals can be therapeutic in many ways in genuine cases.

I do think this is generally bollocks but my cat is a bit of an aid for my anxiety, he chills me out more than a lot of things.

That said if I couldn't travel without him keeping me calm I wouldn't expect the airline to accommodate him, I'd just accept that travelling by plane was out.

On radio 5 a few weeks ago there was a woman who took an emotionally supportive duck on a plane.

Loved the interview

"Emotionally supportive duck"

I just imagined a duck sat on the plane, holding the woman's hand in its wing and asking "You ok Hun?" 🦆

I'm scared of dogs, therefore I'd need an emotional support lion to protect me in case there are any dogs around.