Every time I see this thread title, my brain goes to “Someone left the cake out in the rain.”
When I was a kid a neighbor kept peacocks in his backyard and they yelled all day long. One of my sister’s friends came to visit and she asked what the noise was. My sister told her it was the local S & M parlor.
I think I see what her room in hell will be like.
When I was in my twenties living in an apartment complex there was a family with a blind daughter, about fifteen. She’d been premature and had her eyes burned out before they’d learned too much O[sub]2[/sub] can do that. There was a No Pets policy but the management had made an exception for her Bichon Frise. Her little guy was no trouble at all and I never even heard him bark outside their apartment. Most people had no priblem with him but one time when I walked up, a little snert about ten complained to her that they’d had to give their dog up when they’d moved to the complex. “I’d gladly trade my dog and my eyes for your eyes,” was her calm reply.
The way the ADA was written, if you say that you need a service animal, and that this dog or miniature horse is your service animal, the merchant is required to take your word for it. We are officially, explicitly forbidden to ask for certification, unless the animal deficates, or physically threatens another person.
In theory, this was to protect handicapped people who might accidentally have left their paperwork at home. In practice, it makes it easy for the fakers to abuse the system.
No, actually, you can’t.
This works … only a health care professional can designate an animal as an emotional support animal … and once they do, they’re more than happy to put it in writing … the question remains how each state responds to the signed statements from another state …
This does put the health care professional (and their license to practice) on the line for any abuse with this … so it’s very unlikely they will prescribe a crocodile as an emotional support animal …
I have no idea how the courts are handling this … but it’s important to note that in most jurisdictions it’s strictly illegal to take an animal out of the wild and bring them into our homes … so we are confined to domesticated species and still this is treatment for an illness and not a hobby, the more common and convenient animals are used in this manner … something the local vet would work on …
The peafowl angle in the OP makes me smile … I had a flock for some years and I thought the creatures delightful … a little weak in personality but just drop dead gorgeous … and the molt in the fall, that entire train comes off for the winter … I do believe they can be trained to be settled in a commercial airliner, they are not very excitable and never really “freak out” like some have speculated above … I think the airline had the duty to provide “reasonable accommodation” for the bird and allowed her to travel with it …
EXCEPT … peafowl have no shit control, they go whenever … the ADA explicitly exemption shitting animals for it’s jurisdiction … and that’s sad, I would enjoy sharing a flight with a peacock … they’re cool birds …
ETA: They’re only really noisy 24 hours a day for about three months a year … and they’re no where close to as loud as a locomotive whistle … either you get used to it or you can eat them …
She was told three times that she could not bring the animal with her on the airplane, yet she showed up with it anyway. I applaud United Airlines for sticking to their guns and not letting her board with it.
That was his point.
One time I encountered a woman at my gate with **two **little dogs with their dubious vests on so I asked her if she was training them. “No.” Well, why do you need two of them then? “Ummm.”
At least no one “encouraged” her to flush her peacock down the toilet as a condition for boarding.
Right. My point exactly. I have a permanent handicap plate on my car that grants me the privilege of using handicapped spaces. Lizard couldn’t tell by looking at me whether I need to use it, and I doubt he could tell by looking at anyone else, either. As long as the vehicle sports a handicapped plate or a card hanging from the rear view mirror, MYOB.
I wouldn’t rush to judgment on this. She may have panicked and, not seeing any other solution, decided to do that on her own. Spirit may simply be “the fall guy” she is using to get off the hook.
That girl is not right in the head. She is clearly disturbed and is angling to get a nice payout by claiming the airlines told her to flush her hamster. And then she did! Fucking moron! I bet if someone told her to jump out of the airplane she would have done so too.
Honestly, just when I thought that my faith in humanity couldn’t get any lower, something like this happens to kill my soul a little more. I really truly hope this is an elaborate hoax.
Almost certainly. I’ve been security at a number of Cons and we would tell someone, "I’m not going to tell you what to do with that but you can’t {do}{wear}{carry} that here at the Con. I can’t imagine TSA being any less professional than us eager volunteers.
I’ll give up my emotional support hamster when they pry it from my gnawed, bleeding hands.
Are hamsters bigger than gerbils?
It seems like all concerned overlooked the obvious solution here.
At least the peacock can cry, “HELP! HELP!” 
Listen, bub, why don’t you take your suggestion & shove it up you…ohhh. 
Actually, it was this column that got me interested in the Dope many years ago.
It’s Cock! On A Plane!