Feds Say Airlines Can Ban Emotional Support Animals

The government has tightened the reins on emotional support animals on airplanes. The Transportation Department issued a final rule yesterday (December 2nd) that rewrites the rules about emotional support animals after people brought everything from turtles, pigs, and peacocks onboard planes. The agency says passengers carrying unusual animals on board “eroded the public trust in legitimate service animals,” and noted that the frequency of people “fraudulently representing their pets as service animals,” as well as a rise in badly behaved emotional-support animals. Their new rule will allow airlines to force passengers with emotional-support animals to check them into the cargo hold—and pay a pet fee—or leave them at home. Under the final rule, which takes effect in about a month, a service animal is defined as a dog trained to help a person with a physical or psychiatric disability. Here’s the complete story from Newser.