Page 16 - Sonoma County Gazette April 2020

DEAR READERS: Do you have a legal question on your mind? If so, please email me at debra@newbylawoffice.com. Your name will remain confidential. This Q & A Legal Column is intended as a community service to discuss general legal principles and does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Dear Debra:
Last month I was flying from SFO to Phoenix and was shocked to see another passenger with a ferret as an “emotional support animal”. Although the animal was caged and under his feet, I still have trepidation every time I board a plane. What are the rules for flying with a support animal?
Flying with emotional support animals has also raised some eyebrows by the airline industry, and with good reason. An emotional support dog bit a child on a Southwest flight. Flight attendants have also been attacked, or find themselves in uncomfortable positions as they have to remind the passenger to keep the animal under their seat. Airlines have already begun to tighten some of their polices. For example, Delta announced last year that it would enforce tighter restrictions, citing an “84% increase in reported animal incidents, including urination/defecation, biting, and even a widely reported attack by
a 70-pound dog” ( as reported by Conde Nast Traveler). Other airlines quickly followed suit, but still, it is fairly easy to board a plane with an “emotional support animal”...for NOW.
Signed: Wondering-Wanda-Lust
Individuals with disabilities are not impacted directly by the new rule
and may continue to fly with their legitimate and verified service animal. Disability groups and advocates contend that a wider array of animals can be properly trained to assist persons with disabilities, so do expect to see animals traveling by air such as dogs, capuchin monkeys, miniature horses, and cats as legitimate service animals for individuals with disabilities.
Dear Wanda:
Please do not take my remarks as anti- support animal or insensitive to folks who do have disabilities and rely on a trained support animal, but I hear you. It has gotten a bit out of control. Over the last few years, the media has reported
Odds are, I will probably not re-address this issue in a future legal column, so for my readers who do plan to fly with animals in the near future, a friendly tip: Best to double-check the scheduled airlines website (or call them) to clearly understand their policy regarding traveling with service or emotional support animals. I suspect that all airlines will soon be changing their policies to conform to the new federal rule, once it becomes effective.
on the wide array of “emotional support animals” who make it through the Transportation Security Authority (“TSA”) with their owner and board the plane for “free” (versus paying an airline fee that ranges around $125-150 one way).
Continue to enjoy your travels, Wanda-Lust. And may our fellow passengers take individual responsibility and accountability for the changing times regarding traveling with animals. The pendulum is still swinging, but is coming to a point of balanced certainty. Be well.
The friendly skies have been graced by pigs, ferrets, cats... and even a peacock, a squirrel, and a rat! The Washington Post reported that the number of emotional support animals traveling aboard commercial flights increased from 481,000 in 2016 to 751,000 in 2017 (the most recent statistic I could find). By now, it may be up to a million a year given the trend? No wonder. Under the current federal guidelines, airlines cannot restrict passengers from traveling with emotional support animals. Nor can airlines ban a specific breed or species of animal.
Debra A. Newby resides in West Sonoma County and has practiced law for 38 years. She currently maintains an active law office in Santa Rosa which emphasizes personal injury law (bicycle/motorcycle/motor vehicle accidents, dog bites, trip and falls, etc.). Debra can be reached via email(debra@newbylawoffice.com) or phone (707-526-7200).
Times are a changin’. The U.S. Department of Transportation kicked off 2020 by proposing a new federal rule that would only allow a DOG to fly as an emotional support animal. The proposed rule also clarifies that the dog is considered a pet, not a service animal. The proposed new rule would also give airlines much more latitude in developing and enforcing their own policies regarding travel with service or emotional support animals. If you would like to read the proposed rule or submit your comment, check out https://www. federalregister.gov.documents/2020/02/05/2020-01546/traveling-by-air-with- service-animals. Deadline for comments is April 6, 2020.
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