@kenobi_65 you can’t self diagnose yourself and get an esa. You need a doctor to write you a letter. Assholes will always abuse the system no matter what. Doesn’t mean we should punish everyone.
An emotional support animal is not a service animal. A service animal has been trained to perform specific tasks in order to assist someone with a disability. A seeing eye dog trained to prevent a blind person from walking into traffic or a dog trained to sniff out when a diabetic person’s sugar is dangerously low are examples of service animals. An emotional support animal isn’t trained to perform any particular task to assist someone with a disability. You can’t just slap a label on any old dog and call it a service animal.
Under current ADA guidelines, emotional support animals are not considered service animals. This is important because it means a restaurant can deny entry to someone with an emotional support dog but they cannot deny someone entry who is accompanied by a seeing eye dog. At work, I don’t have to accommodate an emotional support gerbil but I need to accommodate a dog that helps someone keep their balance.
Can you share with us a cite that shows that this requirement isn’t something that can (and is) being easily abused by people already? Can you share with us a cite that shows that there is one uniform form or certification that is used for ESAs?
I ask because the sense I have gotten (and I am happy to be proven incorrect if my assumption is faulty) is that there is no standardization on this, and that the assholes are either (a) getting a “letter” from some doctor who isn’t really familiar with them or their condition (or is willing to sign just about anything), or (b) falsifying a letter because they don’t think anyone will actually check.
You lose your privilege after take-off? How does that work, exactly?
I’m not advocating stricter standards for mental health diagnosis. I’m advocating at least minimal standards for service animal training, to include bona fide emotional support animals. And given the propensity of selfish entitled humans to cheat, this can only happen through some kind of licensing & documentation for service animals. I’m sorry if this makes things more complicated for people with genuine needs. But everyone else traveling on the aircraft deserve to have their rights respected too. You have not responded to my comment that if 20% of people have mental illness issues, dozens of them are on every flight - and they are affected by the stress of allowing untrained animals onto flights, too. Don’t their rights count for anything?
Even a service animal must be well behaved. If it’s aggressive or pees on the carpet or something then you’re free to expel it from your place of business or refuse to let it board your plane.
As far as I’m aware, there is currently no requirement for an ESA to be trained at all. So the current situation is that they have no responsibility for the stress and discomfort that their ESA, an untrained pet, may cause to others.
I said before or after BOARDING the flight.
Do you know how much it costs to train a service animal? Upwards of $40,000. I agree there should be a minimal standard, which is what was in place with the ACAA. If an animal is acting rowdy or is a danger to other passengers or it soils itself, the animal can be removed.
That is true, but emotional support animals cannot cause a disturbance or be a danger to those on board. If they do or are, they can be asked to leave. You can tell when an animal will cause a disturbance as soon as it is on board.
Always? Almost always? Are you sure about that? Or, is that just your opinion?
The issue, obviously, is an animal that causes an issue once the flight has pushed away from the gate. Some human babies who fly on airplanes behave just fine while they’re on the ground, then start to act up when the plane gets loud and the air pressure drops; I would not be surprised if this is true of some untrained animals, as well.
Happens as often with adult humans. They should have to have bone fide certification of training too.
Your entire argument here is self-contradictory. I agree that a sensible minimal standard is that a service animal (including an ESA) can itself cope with the stress of being somewhere like an aircraft without becoming disruptive and without soiling itself. But the burden should not be on everyone else to ensure that a service animal conforms to this standard. A licensing procedure to verify this minimal standard of behavior would not cost $40,000. In fact, I would strongly advocate that the testing and licensing should be free of charge to anyone with a diagnosed condition for which an ESA is beneficial. But out of respect for the rights of everyone else on the aircraft, that standard must be met.
Are you under the impression that drinking and driving is legal?
Drinking alcohol is legal, keeping a pet animal is legal. Different standards apply to alcohol and animals in specific circumstances where they affect the well being of others.
This is true, but not complete. For the > 1 year we had guide dogs in training we did not train them in any way to support blind people. All the training we did was in socialization. Examples are relieving on command, not being distracted by other dogs, being able to sit under my desk while I worked, climbing stairs, going in elevators, not being spooked by loud noises, and plenty more. That’s the kind of stuff an ESA needs. It can be done with a good manual and a support group, and then testing when the training is complete. Shouldn’t be very expensive. I doubt this would be accepted since there is a significant chance that Poochie would fail.
I haven’t seen the breakdown, but I suspect a significant part of that amount is professional training. No way it cost very much when we trained a dog for the first year and a half of its life. Some of the boarding expense was to keep the dog at GDB when it went into heat, which wouldn’t be necessary for an ESA. I think the only costs beyond those of a normal dog would be to pay for the support group and for testing when training is done.
As a compromise, I suggest we ban both animals and babies (except for service animals and service babies) from planes.
I can guarantee you that any baby around me is an essential support baby. Love them babies, I do.
Do you love them 10 hours in to a 14 hour flight when they haven’t stopped bawling for the last 7?
Good point. Aircraft doors don’t open from the inside while in flight. 
Is this a story problem?
That’s the whole story, haha. Although luckily in that case the baby was at the back of the plane and I was halfway up so it wasn’t that bad.
The worst fellow passenger on a plane was neither a baby nor a pet, but a pair of young boys, maybe 3 and 5. One had a Raichu stuffed animal, the other a stuffed Charmander (Pokémon for those unaware). The entire 4 hour flight the two kids squeeked the names of their Pokémon back and forth: “Raichu!” “Charmander!” “RAICHU!!!” “CHARMANDER!!!”
Their horrible parents feebly whispered “shhh” every fifteen minutes or so, but made no other effort to silence their brats. I was just about ready to throw both Raichu and Charmander out the emergency exit.
I have volunteered to sit next to those babies and offered to hold them so their parent could take a break or eat or go to the bathroom. So, yes, I do.
Nah, stuffing them into the bathroom trash should be sufficient and won’t depressurize the plane. Snatch them up, dash into the bathroom, lock the door, flash multiple times and then come out, dusting off your hands. Give the damn things back after the plane lands of course, having surreptitiously handed them off to a Flight Attendant.