[il-talk] Fwd: Department of Transportation, Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule-Making on Traveling by Air With Service Animals

Tue Jun 5 12:41:42 UTC 2018

Hi everyone,
The Department of Transportation is considering new rules for service
animals in air travel. The seeing Eye put this out to its graduates.
You are encouraged to submit comment on the proposed rules and
questions asked. The Seeing Eye provided their responses below.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Seeing Eye Advocacy <advocacy at seeingeye.org>
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2018 17:26:49 -0500
Subject: Department of Transportation, Advanced Notice of Proposed
Rule-Making on Traveling by Air With Service Animals
To: Harris Singer <harris.singer at gmail.com>

The Seeing Eye

Dear Graduates of the Seeing Eye:

As many of you know, the U.S. Department of Transportation has issued
an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) concerning air
travel with service animals. This document provides notice to the
public that DOT plans to amend and clarify its regulations
implementing the Air Carrier Access Act in light of the challenges
people working with service animals are facing during air travel. DOT
is seeking comments from the public on 10 specific questions. You can
submit comments by July 9 either on line, by fax, or by mail. The
ANPRM issued by the DOT can be found at
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOT-OST-2018-0068-0001

As graduates of The Seeing Eye, this is an opportunity for your voice
to be heard. If you have experienced difficulties during air travel
with your guide that you feel could be eliminated with clearer rules
about traveling with service animals, we urge you to consider
submitting a comment at
https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=DOT-OST-2018-0068-1157

Please do your best to answer the specific questions asked so that
your comments will be as helpful as possible to DOT.

Below is the text of a comment The Seeing Eye just submitted to DOT.
The Seeing Eye has worked for decades to make sure guide dog users
have equal access to air travel but we cannot do it without help and
support from our graduates. Thank you for taking part in this process.
As always, if you have questions about advocacy or access issues, feel
free to email us at advocacy at seeingeye.org or call us at
1-800-539-4425.

Thank you,

Melissa Allman, Esq.
Senior Specialist, Advocacy and Government Relations
The Seeing Eye

To: The U.S. Department of Transportation

From: The Seeing Eye, Inc.

Re: DOT-OST-2018-0068, RIN No. 2105-AE63

Traveling by Air with Service Animals

The Seeing Eye has been providing specially bred and trained guide
dogs for people who are blind or have low vision since 1929. Since
that time, The Seeing Eye has worked tirelessly to advocate for the
rights of guide dog users to have equal access to all modes of
transportation including air travel. At present, there are over 1,700
active Seeing Eye graduates in North America and many of those people
are regular air travelers. As Senior Advocacy Specialist and a guide
dog handler myself, I am submitting the below comments on behalf of
The Seeing Eye. I commend DOT's efforts to amend and clarify its
ACAA regulations to ensure safe and equal access to air travel for
people who work with service animals. The Seeing Eye's position
on the questions posed in the ANPRM is as follows:

Question 1: Whether psychiatric service animals should be treated
similarly to other service animals;

Question 2: Whether there should be a distinction between emotional
support animals and other service animals;

Comments to questions 1 and 2: Service animals should be defined as
those that are 1) individually trained to do work or perform tasks for
a person with a disability and 2) public access trained. Animals that
do not meet both of these criteria should be designated as a separate
and distinct category from service animals.

Question 3: whether emotional support animals should be required to
travel in pet carriers for the duration of the flight;

Comment: Animals should be permitted to travel in the cabin without
being crated as long as they meet the criteria in the definition of
service animal proposed in comments 1 and 2.

Question 4: Whether the species of service animals and emotional
support animals that airlines are required to transport should be
limited;

Comment: With respect to the species of service animals, the amended
DOT regulations should be consistent with the Department of Justice
regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act. The
result would be that the species of service animals would be limited
to dogs and in some narrow circumstances, miniature horses.

Question 5: whether the number of service animals/emotional support
animals should be limited per passenger;

Comment: The Seeing Eye is concerned that as the number of service
animals traveling with a handler increases, the likelihood that the
handler will be able to effectively control the animals decreases.

Question 6: Whether an attestation should be required from all service
animal and emotional support animal users that their animal has been
trained to behave in a public setting;

Comment: No. An attestation would have no value because passengers
could provide assurances that the animal is trained to behave
appropriately in public regardless of the animal's actual
behavior and there would be no way to determine the veracity of these
statements. Existing guidelines allow airlines to refuse to transport
service animals that are engaging in disruptive or threatening
behavior such as excessive barking, biting, growling, jumping,
eliminating in the terminal or aircraft, etc. Furthermore, if the
definition of service animal is limited to those that are trained to
perform work or tasks and public access trained, and all other animals
were required to be in pet carriers, airlines would be far less likely
to have problems with unruly or aggressive animals.

Question 7: Whether service animals and emotional support animals
should be harnessed, leashed, or otherwise tethered;

Comment: Service animals should be leashed or otherwise under the
handler's control at all times. There are times during air
travel when it may be appropriate for a passenger using a guide dog to
remove its harness for the comfort and safety of the dog. However, the
guide dog handler still has control over the dog in these limited
circumstances because the leash is the means of control.

Question 8: Whether there are safety concerns with transporting large
service animals and if so, how to address them;

Comment: If DOT adopts the definition of service animal proposed in
comments 1 and 2, these safety concerns would be greatly decreased. On
page 34, The ANPRM states in part that

"Airlines have ... expressed safety concerns about large
service animals in the cabin, particularly large emotional support
animals that have not received disability-mitigation training.
... While the Department previously concluded that a service
animal's reasonable use of a portion of an adjacent seat's
foot space does not deny another passenger effective use of the space
for his or her feet and is not an adequate reason for the carrier to
refuse to permit the animal to accompany its user at his or her seat,
some airlines have indicated that passengers feel pressured to agree
to such an arrangement and have later expressed to airline personnel
their dissatisfaction at having to share their foot space."

If DOT requires air carriers to transport only dogs that are trained
to mitigate a disability and behave appropriately in public, it will
be easier for air carriers to simultaneously accommodate passengers
using service animals and assuage the potential concerns of passengers
who are being asked to help make that accommodation possible.

Question 9: whether airlines should be prohibited from requiring a
veterinary health form or immunization record from service animal
users without an individualized assessment that the animal would pose
a direct threat to the health or safety of others or would cause a
significant disruption in the aircraft cabin;

Comment: Yes. Airlines should be prohibited from requiring a
veterinary health form or immunization record from service animal
users in advance of travel. This requirement would place burdens and
restrictions on service animal users that are not placed on other
passengers. For example, the requirement could prevent service animal
users from traveling on short notice or checking in on line or at curb
side. Moreover, once an air carrier has made an individualized
assessment that a service animal would pose a direct threat or cause a
significant disruption in an aircraft cabin, veterinary records do
nothing to mitigate the threat the animal potentially poses and DOT
regulations do not obligate air carriers to transport the animal under
those circumstances.

In closing, The Seeing Eye expresses its appreciation to DOT for the
opportunity to participate in the advanced rule making process on an
issue that is of paramount importance to our organization as a whole
and our graduates as individuals. If The Seeing Eye can provide any
further assistance or information on issues raised in this ANPRM given
our areas of expertise, please feel free to contact us.

Melissa R. Allman, Esq.
Senior Specialist, Advocacy and Government Relations
The Seeing Eye, Inc.

P.O. Box 375, Morristown, NJ 07963-0375 (mail)
10 Washington Valley Road, Morristown, NJ 07960-3412 (deliveries)
973-539-4425 ext. 1724
Fax:  973-525-1081
advocacy at seeingeye.org

The Seeing Eye
10 Washington Valley Road
Morristown, NJ 07960
ph (973) 539-4425
e info at seeingeye.org

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