[nagdu] How Easily Can Pigs Fly for Free?

[Danielle Ledet]

This may have been shared already. Not sure so far after going through
my most recent mail. I saw this featured on CBS This Morning on July
3. There is a video that goes along with it which wouldn't play for
me, nor could I see thecomments. You might try though.



This piece originally aired on May 14, 2015.
Some airline passengers take advantage of a law meant to protect the
disabled, reports CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg.
The Air Carrier Access Act states "no carrier can discriminate"
against individuals demonstrating "a physical or mental impairment" to
board with animals.
CBS News staffer Swainson Gill and his family pet dog, Pharaoh, were
volunteers to demonstrate how easily pets can travel for free under
those rules.
Pharaoh ported the required vest, but he is not an emotional support
animal on official business.
"I have not met a flight attendant who has not had some experience
with a pet in the cabin," Association of Professional Flight
Attendants national president Laura Glading said. "I don't really want
to brush with a broad brush everyone who has an emotional support
animal. They can be very, very helpful. I have a dog myself."
Emotional support animals are often mistaken for, but are not service
animals, which are trained in specific tasks to assist people with
disabilities.
"In a very real sense my safety, my life is in the paws of my dog,"
The Seeing Eye president and CEO Jim Kutsch said. "The best service
animal is the one that isn't noticed. The dog that is very quietly
behind the scenes doing its job to mitigate the disability of the
human half of the partnership."
Anyone claiming an emotional need, with access to the internet, and a
one-time fee of about $150 can apply for certification. That's about
the same most passengers pay to travel -- each way -- with pets not
considered an emotional support.
"I think a lot has to do with not having to pay, a way to bring your
pet along and it's really gotten out of hand," Glading said.
Swainson logged on to one of the many sites offering counseling
services. His reported disability: "a fear of flying," one of the many
reasons given, and difficult to challenge.
The questionnaire was complete in less than five minutes. Two weeks
later a letter confirming his dog as an emotional support animal
arrived along with the official-looking vest.
Within days Swainson and Pharaoh were on their way from New York to
Washington, D.C. to take in the sites.
"It's amazing how easy it was," Swainson said.
"It's not really whether they're a service animal, whether they're an
emotional support animal or whether they're a pet, it's when the dog
themselves are stressed and out of their comfort zone, that are
misbehaving -- that's where the problems come up," Kutsch said.
While Pharaoh's behavior would earn him his wings, not every pet or
passenger is as comfortable at 30,000 feet.
"We had 50 documented reports where there was a return to the gate, or
somebody was bitten or there was non-compliance," Glading said.
Currently there are no rules at the Department of Transportation as to
what constitutes an emotional support animal. There's not even a rule
as to how many animals can fly on any one flight.
PlayVideo

-- 
Danielle

Email: singingmywayin at gmail.com