Emotional support/service animals..

[LTuser]

So, where do you all stand on the whole 'emotional support and service animals issue', since that news article about that airline refusing a woman's Peacock made the headlines the other day?

DO you feel, that a business owner, should be allowed to ask for proof that the animal is certified? Do you feel that business should be allowed to say "some animals are ok, others not"???
Or do you feel, asking those sorts of questions are wrong/violate privacy?

 

[Aximili86]

It's a weird one, there's gotta be some sort of balance with it I think. If someone with a small dog that fits in their bag or whatever really, really feels the need to have it with them on the plane, an airline can probably accomodate that.

It does sort of seem like trolling at a certain point though, when someone tries to bring a huge friggin' peacock onto a flight. That just reeks of "push the boundaries, intentionally get them to shut me down, then I can flash my doctor's certificate saying I have anxiety and I probably have a lawsuit case".

Some people genuinely need this stuff, and you've gotta try to empathise with them at least. There's always a couple of d*cks trying to mess it up for everyone though, there's gotta be a line drawn somewhere. You can't have some bipolar or aspergers guy trying to bring a small pony, or a pig, or whatever, onto a flight in the name of emotional comfort.

 

[LTuser]

It's a weird one, there's gotta be some sort of balance with it I think. If someone with a small dog that fits in their bag or whatever really, really feels the need to have it with them on the plane, an airline can probably accomodate that.

True, it might be easy to 'accomodate'. BUT EXACTLY what is a 'pocket' dog (or cat), going to do to provide a disabled person a service???

It does sort of seem like trolling at a certain point though, when someone tries to bring a huge friggin' peacock onto a flight. That just reeks of "push the boundaries, intentionally get them to shut me down, then I can flash my doctor's certificate saying I have anxiety and I probably have a lawsuit case".

My point exactly. I know personally, 5 fellow vets who DO have emotional support animals, cause of PTSD, and they were all certified after several months of training to BE those animals.. Yet i've heard of sites which offer people the chance to buy all sorts of articles 'showing your pet is a service animal - no certification needed', which to me is encouraging imo all these fakes...

Some people genuinely need this stuff, and you've gotta try to empathise with them at least. There's always a couple of d*cks trying to mess it up for everyone though, there's gotta be a line drawn somewhere. You can't have some bipolar or aspergers guy trying to bring a small pony, or a pig, or whatever, onto a flight in the name of emotional comfort.

I do empathize.. BUT how much fakers do we have to 'let go' before we start calling BULL, and checking everyone??

 

[Thundercrack85]

I honestly did not know a peacock could be a service animal.

 

[Sithborg]

I honestly did not know a peacock could be a service animal.

They are *******s is what they are. (I may have issues with peacocks from when I worked at a zoo)

 

[Aximili86]

I honestly did not know a peacock could be a service animal.

It's not "service" it's "comfort". Which is where this gets tricky and the lines blur. It's not like a guide dog for a blind person, trained and certified and performing a function.

With no defined boundaries as of now, anyone could claim anything as bringing them comfort, and so long as they can convince a doctor to sign a bit of paper for them they're probably legally in the clear taking it wherever. I get the little chichuahua Paris Hilton dog in the uptight rich ladies' handbag, fine, whatever.

But an airline probably has cause to assert "nah, you're not having a three-foot bird walking around the aisle on our flight. Take a xanax and shut up."

 

[LTuser]

I honestly did not know a peacock could be a service animal.

So far, ive heard of emotional support ducks, turtles, and even one gal (out of of iirc baton rogue) who had a 'emotional support snake'...
I'd LOVE TO KNOW how they would have gotten trained as such!

It's not "service" it's "comfort". Which is where this gets tricky and the lines blur. It's not like a guide dog for a blind person, trained and certified and performing a function.

With no defined boundaries as of now, anyone could claim anything as bringing them comfort, and so long as they can convince a doctor to sign a bit of paper for them they're probably legally in the clear taking it wherever. I get the little chichuahua Paris Hilton dog in the uptight rich ladies' handbag, fine, whatever.

I agree. Hence why i made this thread.. And in many cases (such as my last Gencon, where some woman got all in the face of one of the volunteers for 'daring to even ask what service her 'service animal was to perform for her) many places are too scared to ask, so people who want to 'milk' the system can get away with it, cause they know many business don't even WANT To have the hassle of a lawsuit...

 

[Webfoot Hero]

Some people have really taken emotional support animals to an extreme, such as one lady who brought her full-grown horse everywhere and another where a guy had his donkey with him at all times. There has to be some type of line where the absurdity has to be called out.

 

[Mandon Knight]

I don't have an 'emotional support animal' but I think and get a lot of the background to the differential between 'service & emotional' in that as a classified disabled person, my disability is not one you would automatically see I have, people's perceptions of disabled are based on 'the ability not to walk or physical affliction', therefore must be physically disabled or require a wheelchair access scenario, I get a huge amount of crap for using a disabled toilet and then when I show my disability card, people back down, 'oh sorry mate, didn't realise'. Same goes for a service animal, or emotional need animal, i.e. for a blind person or a person requiring physical aid that a human may not always be around to give in the shape of a carer. Dependency or need is a very personal matter or variant and is down to the individual to determine their own spectrum of ideal.