Delta Air Lines has come under scrutiny after the carrier reportedly did not allow a service dog scheduled to be delivered to a two-year-old child dealing with seizures on one of its flights.
The DOT said in a guidance document on how it plans to enforce regulations of service animals in aircraft cabins that it “views a limitation based exclusively on breed of the service animal to not be allowed under its service animal regulation.”
A man who was severely mauled by an emotional support animal on a Delta flight in 2017 is suing the airline and the dog’s owner for damages. An in-depth reading of the suit delivers some disturbing takeaways about the future of air travel for both humans and animals.
Effective December 18, 2018: Service and support animals under four months of age are not allowed on any flight due to USDA vaccination requirements. Additionally, emotional support animals are no longer allowed to be booked on flights longer than eight hours. If you purchased your ticket prior to December 18th and have requested to travel with an emotional support animal, it will be ok to travel as originally ticketed.
As you can imagine, Delta received hundreds of proposals per week; and while all are worthy, we cannot honor all requests. After careful consideration of the information provided, we are sorry to inform you that we are declining your request because the opportunity does not meet our current objectives and budget.
Thank you for thinking of Delta Air Lines, and we wish you all the best.
Last year, the number of pets carried by U.S. airlines (usually for a fee in the cabin or cargo hold) increased 11% to 784,000, according to Airlines for America, the industry’s lobbying organization. The number of service animals increased 24% to 281,000, according to A4A. And the number of emotional-support animals leapt 56% in that one-year period, to 751,000.
Delta Air Lines will limit each passenger to one emotional support animal and will prohibit pit bulls as service or support animals on flights, effective July 10.
“This thing has gotten out of hand,” said Jeff Younggren, a psychologist and clinical professor at the University of New Mexico, who has conducted several studies on the subject of emotional support animals.
The number of passengers flying with emotional support animals on the nation’s airlines has surged. United Airlines, one of the biggest carriers, saw a 75% increase last year compared with 2016. The trend has been accompanied by more incidents of animals urinating, defecating, biting, barking and lunging on planes. A passenger was even mauled by a 50-pound dog on a Delta flight last year.