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?

Parker231. Some owners need to be taught how to train their dogs as they also contribute to number of cases of children being bitten.

Hahahaha about slapping a vest on a boa constrictor and calling it a support snake. My favourite comment all day

What about emotionally supportive humans? Would save us a fortune on our next holiday

I saw one boarding a plane in USA recently.. Enormous growling drooling bull mastiff. I asked ground staff how come it wS allowed on and was told it was An emotional support dog... Wtaf???
I did say what happened if a passenger had a severe allergy to dogs... Apparently that passenger would be offered (made) to get another flight...
So we can all sit there and not be allowed to eat our snickers Cus someone has. A nut allergy but the support dog trumps your anyphylaxis.
I was genuinely horrified by airlines attitude.
So on boarding plane we had to walk past snarling, growling dog who was in business class while his owner (who looked perfectly relaxed and happy) was ignoring him and getting stuck into the free champers.
Anyone remotely nervous of dogs would have been terrified.

I wonder how much excess baggage Ryanair would charge for my emotional support elephants?

There's a good chance the hamster flush thing never happened.

The kid shouldn't have been near the dog, as she'd already been told not to touch/approach. But equally, the dog should be of sound character.

I have no problem with emotional support animals (dogs, primarily), and wouldn't object to one being on my flight, but I do think that their character needs to come under scrutiny as it would for any support animal. They are using a labrador in sexual abuse/assault court hearings/trials here now and have had resounding success, so I wouldn't want to see that sort of thing stripped back because someone's child couldn't do what they were asked to.

This is the best article ever about Emotional Support Animals (and what an utter joke the entire concept is) www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/pets-allowed

I believe that those "emotional support pets" are just complete bollocks. A made up crap. And the dog should have been muzzled and have a basic obedience training.

Well said Clandestino. If I owned an airline/restaurant or any other other kind of business there would be no emotional support animals allowed. Of course owning pets can be beneficial, just keep them at home like everyone else.

If I wanted to slap a vest on a boa constrictor and say it was a "support snake" would you be happy with it on a plane next to you?*

I'm sure Samuel L Jackson would have something to say...