A Dog's Life
On a recent flight I noticed the person sitting next to me had a dog. And the dog was wearing a vest that said "support animal."
In fact, I bet people need to smoke on planes more than they need a pet with them, but that's been banned with no looking back. (I know, the smoke bothers other passengers. But some people are allergic to dogs and cats.)
I can't blame pet owners for taking advantage of this emotional support rule, but it still seems to be something close to a swindle.
posted by LAGuy @ 8:37 AM
3 Comments:
Unless they are cheating, a certified support animal presumably has training and so should be inoffensive on an airplane, except for people with allergies, as you point out. But then, there are people who are allergic to perfumes and I'm not so comfortable around BO. I tend to lean on the side of people being allowed to do what they want if it doesn't significantly impact other people. Now, I would also have a one bite rule for these animals. One incidence of howling or pooping on the plane, and it should be barred from passenger cabin travel forever. This goes for people too :-).
DG
What training are you talking about? All you need to do is whine to the proper authorities that you feel bad if you can't travel with your pet, and your poodle gets declared a support animal.
I propose the following analogy:
"We allow support animals"
is to
"All animals allowed"
as
"Medical marijuana"
is to
"complete legalization of marijuana."
(A few years back I visited Venice Beach. Each block had a doctor who would give you a prescription for marijuana if you had some condition, such as "cancer, stress, occasional headaches". And in the booth next to him, but completely unaffiliated with him, was a guy selling five dozen flavors of weed.)
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