Alaska Airlines becomes the first to PROHIBIT emotional support animals and will only allow service dogs

In two weeks, no potbellied pig, miniature horse or peacock will be welcome aboard Alaska Airlines flights amid an industry-wide crackdown on emotional support animals.

The Seattle-based airline announced changes to its service animal policy on Tuesday, saying that as of January 11, the airline will no longer allow any emotional support animals on its flights.

“Alaska will only transport service dogs, which are specially trained to perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability,” the airline said in a press release.

The move comes just weeks after the U.S. Department of Transportation said it would no longer require airlines to provide the same accommodations for emotional support animals and service dogs.

“This regulatory change is good news as it will help us reduce disturbances on board, while continuing to accommodate our guests traveling with qualified service animals,” said Ray Prentice, director of customer defense for Alaska Airlines.

According to the revised policy, Alaska will not accept more than two guide dogs per passenger in the cabin. Passengers must complete a form on the airline’s website, confirming that their pet is a legitimate service dog, specially trained and vaccinated and that it will behave properly during the flight.

Passengers who booked their flights before January 11 will be allowed to travel with their emotional support animals until February 28, but not later.

The new DOT rule that restricts emotional support animals, announced on December 2, aims to resolve years of tension between airlines and passengers who bring their pets for free, saying they need them for emotional help. According to a long-standing departmental policy, all passengers needed was a ticket from a healthcare professional.

Airlines argued that passengers abused the situation to bring a collection of animals on board, including cats, turtles, pot-bellied pigs, kangaroos, pandas and, in one case, a peacock called Dexter.

The agency said it was rewriting the rules in part because passengers carrying unusual animals on board “undermined public confidence in legitimate service animals”.

He also cited the increasing frequency of people ‘fraudulently representing their pets as service animals’ and an increase in the inappropriate behavior of emotional support animals, ranging from peeing on the carpet to biting other passengers and crew.

The revised policy will force passengers with support animals to register them in the cargo hold – and pay a fee for pets – or leave them at home. The agency estimated that airlines, which were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, will earn up to $ 59.6 million a year in pet fees.

The number of animals on airplanes took off several years ago, and a craft industry has grown up around providing papers, medical notes and even canine vests for support animals.

According to the final DOT rule, which comes into force in early January, a service animal is a dog trained to help a person with a physical or psychiatric disability. Veterans’ advocates and others pushed for the inclusion of psychiatric service dogs.

Airlines for America, a commercial group of the largest U.S. airlines, said the new rule would protect airline passengers and employees, while helping people to travel with trained service dogs.

“Hopefully, the days of Noah’s Ark in the air are coming to an end,” Sara Nelson, president of the Flight Attendants Association, told USA Today.

Proponents of emotionally supportive animals were disgusted by the new DOT rule, arguing that animals help them with anxiety, post-traumatic or other problems that would prevent them from traveling.

‘While it is no secret that we still remain far from a truly accessible transport system in this country, the DOT rule will only serve to exacerbate the existing inequalities for people with disabilities who participate in air travel and, instead, will accommodate almost exclusively the interests of airline industry, ‘said Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, in a statement, as reported by The New York Times.

Defines a service animal as a dog that is individually trained to work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability;