[nagdu] Allergy ruling could lead to ban on pets in airplane cabin

Ginger Kutsch gingerKutsch at yahoo.com
Sun Nov 8 22:33:51 UTC 2009


Allergy ruling could lead to ban on pets in airplane cabins
Source:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Allergy+ruling+could+lead+pet
s+airplane+cabins/2184882/story.html
By Sarah Schmidt, Canwest News ServiceNovember 4, 2009
OTTAWA - The government agency overseeing airline consumer
complaints is considering declaring allergies a disability - a
development that could force Canada's largest airlines to stop
allowing small pets to fly in the passenger cabin with their
owners.
 

The Canadian Transportation Agency is probing four separate
complaints involving Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd., Joan
MacDonald, the agency's director general of dispute resolution,
said Wednesday during special parliamentary hearings into the pet
policies at Canada's two main airlines.
 

The federal tribunal will decide whether allowing pets to travel
in passenger cabins represents an undue obstacle to
transportation for people who suffer from severe pet allergies.
 
The agency has hired a doctor who is an allergy specialist to
prepare a report about allergies related to cat and dog dander to
help the agency make a decision, said MacDonald.
 

"Once the pleadings are complete, the agency will decide on the
next course of action, which could include decisions on
disability status . . . and possible corrective measures,"
MacDonald told members of the House of Commons health committee.
 
"Certainly, these types of cases are a good example of the
increasing complexity we face in determining what constitutes a
disability under the Canada Transportation Act."
 
Medical experts from the Universities of British Columbia and
Ottawa testified that Canada's largest airlines are putting the
lives of passengers at risk by allowing pet owners to bring their
small animals into airplane cabins.
 
The issue has become a pressing one since Air Canada rejoined
WestJet in July by upgrading small pets from the baggage
compartment to the passenger cabin, they told parliamentarians.
 
"Although some pet-allergic individual will have only eye or nose
symptoms with exposure, cat and dog allergens are major triggers
of severe asthma attacks in others. These can be life-threatening
and a single exposure, even treated aggressively, can lead to
persistent symptoms for days," Dr. Robert Schellenberg, head of
the allergy and immunology division at the University of British
Columbia's faculty of medicine, told members of the committee.
 
"People with allergies can and do have life-threatening asthma
attacks, and the risk of having one on an airplane outweighs the
purported commercial benefits to the airline of allowing
passengers to bring their pets on board," added Dr. Thomas
Kovesi, a pediatric respirologist at the Children's Hospital for
Eastern Ontario and indoor air quality expert at the University
of Ottawa.
 
All airlines are required by federal regulation to allow service
animals, such as guide dogs, to travel in passenger cabins, but
regular pets aren't afforded the same treatment.
 
In the case of Air Canada, the airline kicked pets out of the
passenger cabin in September 2006. The following year, Canada's
largest airline stopped allowing pets in the baggage compartment
on domestic flights, forcing travellers to put their pets on
cargo flights. In May 2008, Air Canada reinstated pets as checked
luggage.
 
In August 2008, the Canadian Transportation Agency upheld Air
Canada's right to ban small pets from the passenger cabin in
response to a consumer complaint. But the airline reversed its
position a few months ago after facing a barrage of criticism
from pet owners, who had the option to travel with their small
pets on WestJet flights.
 
The Calgary-based airline, Air Canada's main domestic competitor,
allows up to two dogs, cats, birds or rabbits to travel in the
passenger cabin on every flight.
 
Jennifer Schenkel, director of communications for the Canadian
Lung Association, testified Wednesday that parliamentarians
should ask the airlines to ban pets on passenger cabins, except
for service animals - just like British Airways, Cathay Pacific
and Southwest Airlines.
 
"People who are disabled by lung disease should not be prevented
from travelling on aircraft," said Schenkel, who testified along
with Jill Frigon of the Lung Association of Saskatchewan and
Diane Bergeron, a guide dog user.
 
In cases where a service animal will be present, passengers
should be informed in advance and given the option of remaining
on the flight or being moved to the next available flight at the
cost of the airline, Schenkel said.
 
"This is not about trying to deny people the privilege of
travelling with their pet. Rather, this is about finding an
important middle ground that balances the love of our pets with
the health and safety of airline passengers and crew while
accommodating people who are at risk due to their lung disease."
 
A spokesman for Air Canada said the airline does not release
statistics on the number of complaints it has fielded or medical
incidents related to its pets-in-cabin policy.
 
C Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
   

 


Ginger Bennett Kutsch
Morristown, NJ


 



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