Service Animal Guidelines

From USA Today:

“Flying with an emotional support animal? This DOT guidance might help you”

The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued clarifying guidance to airlines on how to handle service animals and the growing issue of emotional support animals.  The guidance on species limitations, documentation requirements, containment, check-in and advance notice comes just weeks after an American Airlines flight attendant was bitten by an emotional support dog on a flight from Dallas to North Carolina, which prompted union calls to further tighten rules on in-flight animals. "We need the (U.S.) Department of Transportation to take action now so events like the one that happened yesterday do not continue to occur on our planes,'' the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said in a July 23 release. And DOT action has come — at least in the way of clarifying existing rules. Individual airlines will be required to review and adjust their policies in accordance with that guidance.  DOT regulates the transportation of service animals under the Air Carrier Access Act and solicited comments from the public last year after disability advocates and airline industry groups raised concerns about regulations around the handling of service and support animals. The solicitation resulted in nearly 4,500 comments. The new guidance Thursday seeks to clarify DOT's service animal rules from last year, and the agency intends to open up an additional comment period later this year to determine if the rules should be further modified.

Highlights from DOT's clarifying guidance on emotional support animals

- Airlines cannot ban a specific breed or species of support animal, though they have some latitude to deny specific animals if they believe the animal could pose a threat. "Priority will be placed on ensuring that the most commonly recognized service animals (dogs, cats and miniature horses) are accepted for transport."

-  Airlines can require animal owners to provide documentation related to the animal's vaccination, training or behavior to determine whether an animal poses a threat to the health or safety of others. They can also require documentation for flights over eight hours related to an animal's bathroom habits but cannot have outright bans on animals on long flights. 

- Airlines can require animals within the cabin to be tethered.

-  Airlines can't require advance notice for those traveling with traditional service animals. 

- Airlines can require lobby check-in for emotional support animals. 

- Airlines can ask questions to determine a passenger's need for the animal, but must accept a medical form or letter that meets DOT's criteria as medical documentation of their need. 

- Airlines can't restrict passengers from traveling with more than one emotional support animal and also can't limit the total number of animals on any flight. 

- Airlines can deny animals that are too large or too heavy to be in the cabin and can prohibit animals younger than four months.

Groups praise emotional support animal guidance 

^ Finally some good news by the Federal Government on what airlines can and can not do with regards to service animals. This should have been done years ago. Hopefully, now things will improve for everyone involved. ^

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dot-issues-rules-guidance-flying-222231473.html