I was told that regulation is only for flights to Kansas.
I had the same issue trying to figure out how to move my Newfie and his crew across the country. I could get everyone up to the Swissie on a domestic carrier. The Newfie was only going to go on a certain private carrier that specialized in animal transport. By the time I worked the logistics of that out, I ended up just driving the whole bunch of them out myself. They move horses by air, they’ve got to be able to move a dog. Yeesh.
Horses get moved by air on the main deck of cargo aircraft operated by dedicated cargo lines. Which moves cost serious money. You certainly could move your entire menagerie that way. It’d be much cheaper to sell those dogs and get new ones at your destination.
What if I showed up at a plane with 25 service-snakes?
I think you’d have lots of -’ elbow room on that -’ plane. Like several rows to yourself. 
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As a pilot, what stops you from challenging those animals? The regulations allow you to ask for paperwork and deny boarding to anyone who doesn’t have it.
What stops me is that it’s not my job. My boss doesn’t want me poking in there unnecessarily. The gate agents and FAs are experts in those regs, have all the details of the company policy in their manuals, have had training on the topic, etc.
If the passenger becomes a compliance problem that’s when I get involved. They are obligated, by law and by the conditions of carriage incorporated in their ticket purchase, to comply with crew member instructions. If that becomes in doubt then the buck stops with me to determine if the non-compliance results in their travel being disrupted. Not over their pet or their offensive t-shirt or their overpowering personal stench. But over their noncompliance.
Even then our management prefers that I contact a passenger service special expert person, drop the problem in their lap and heed their advice. Which I generally do unless it’s obvious to me the passenger is a hopeless case or I find the special expert on duty is useless.
One of the keys to using absolute power is to use it sparingly and only with good justification.
… provided the cargo heater is working. I posted this wonderful story before, but dammit, I’m going to post it again …
Right - but it’s when your airline figures out how to offer this service in flight that the serious money starts to be made.
(I was once on a flight from Auckland to LAX that included a kid around a year old who spent a solid 2 hours emitting truly blood-curdling screams. Think of the noise a child might make if you repeatedly poked red-hot needles into its eyes.)
My wife joined the volunteer search parties looking for Jeddah, but the dog was never found. If you read the article, what’s only touched on is that the airline would not allow the sturdy crate on the plane, but forced the customer to use an airline-provided crate, no doubt because it was flimsier (lighter). The inadequate airline crate broke open on the tarmac and their loved one was never seen again.
It’s easy to blame the airline for this. It’s also factually accurate and should carry far heavier consequences – the sort that would deter a major corporation from risking and killing family members for a few bucks worth of kerosene.
I’ve tried to come up with a scenario where someone lying to get their doggie a good seat would impact me in any way at all, and came up well short.
One does what seems best at the time.
I am raising a Service Dog (I’m his puppy-raider). If I fly with him, I have to provide documentation on his school, he has to wear his vest, and he has to sit at my feet. He is a very large puppy (10 months) his Dad tops out around 98lbs.
It would not be a comfy trip for him.
There is a corollary: Just because you can’t do it, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.
I vote complainers go in cargo & dogs get to be in the cabin.
( putting on my green metal fire proof undies )
Thread reported, using the service dog exemption is really hurting people who really need them. It perhaps is illegal to do as is suggested here, and definitely harmful to people who depend on service dogs.
Or, as my vet said, “If you’re worried about your pet in air-cargo, you take the sedative. The dogs get treated better than you do.”
Animals who are not trained as service animals can and do go to the bathroom where they like, when they like. They don’t sit quietly under a seat or between the owner’s feet; they can jump up on fellow travellers, whine, cry, bark, and in extremely stressful situations can bite. They are not trained to ignore other animals, so if there is an actual service animal on the flight (or an appropriately-sized and stowed pet) they can distract the service animal from its medical purpose or, in some cases, attack the service animal- potentially resulting in the loss of a $40,000 piece of medical equipment. If you’re sitting between it and the animal it wants to get at, guess who runs the risk of being bitten, scratched, or otherwise injured?
LOL, you haven’t met many good dogs, have you? Mine would sit quietly where she was told to sit, and would never think of relieving herself in an inappropriate place. She would be a much more reliably quiet passenger than most kids. I’m not saying every dog is so well behaved, but they don’t require 40k in training to be good citizens.
Yep, my dogs behave better than most children. I’ve worked from home for the past 5 yrs and my 4 pugs sit quietly by my feet for 8 hrs, minus breaks and lunch when they go outside.
I have a sign on my front door, telling people what hours they are allowed to knock. As long as there’s no knock, they are quiet as can be.