Passengers on US airlines will no longer be able to fly with “emotional support” animals – which in recent years have included turkeys, gliding possums, snakes and spiders – under new rules proposed by the federal Department of Transportation.
Federal law allows passengers with disabilities to travel with service animals. The proposed rules announced on Wednesday are aimed at preventing passengers from falsely claiming that status for their pets.
In the biggest change, the department suggests no longer considering an emotional support animal to be a service animal.
The department said the proposal was “intended to ensure a safe and accessible air transportation system” and will be open for public comment, adding it “wants to ensure that individuals with disabilities can continue using their service animals”.
Airlines including Southwest, Delta, United and American have moved to limit emotional support animals in cabins to largely dogs and cats, after reporting a growing number of passengers seeking to travel with exotic pets that could pose safety risks.
In 2018, for example, Delta noted that passengers “attempted to fly with comfort turkeys, gliding possums known as sugar gliders, snakes” and spiders. The same year, American said it would not allow animals including goats, ferrets, hedgehogs, amphibians and reptiles onboard its planes as support animals.
The Trump administration proposal would define a service animal “as a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability”.
The proposal would consider “a psychiatric service animal to be a service animal and require the same training and treatment of psychiatric service animals as other service animals”.
Airlines would be able to require forms attesting to a service animal’s good behaviour, certifying its good health “and if taking a long flight attesting that the service animal has the ability to either not relieve itself, or can relieve itself in a sanitary manner”.
The proposal would also allow airlines to limit the number of service animals traveling with a single passenger to two and could require service animals to fit within its handler’s foot space on the aircraft.
