Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbam here the skies aren't always so friendly. A
Speaker 1: couple incidents have been reported of large dogs fighting airline
Speaker 1: passengers as the number of pets flying as service and
Speaker 1: emotional support animals has skyrocketed. According to Delta alone, it
Speaker 1: was up a hundred and fifty percent between twenty fifteen
Speaker 1: and twenty seventeen. This prompted the airline and others to
Speaker 1: enact more stringent requirements for onboard animals. Delta's rules now
Speaker 1: say that owners of emotional support animals will be required
Speaker 1: to show proof of their pets health or vaccinations at
Speaker 1: least forty eight hours before a flight. They also need
Speaker 1: to present a statement from their doctor declaring a mental
Speaker 1: health disability. Finally, owners must also sign a statement saying
Speaker 1: their animal can behave. Emotional support animals occupy a different
Speaker 1: category from service animals, which are highly trained to perform specific,
Speaker 1: potentially life saving tasks for people living with a disability.
Speaker 1: We spoke via email with Beth Zimmerman, founder of Pets
Speaker 1: for Patriots, an organization that matches shelter dogs and cats
Speaker 1: with veterans. She said Emotional support animals are companion pets,
Speaker 1: ordinary house pets that are recommended by an individual's mental
Speaker 1: health professional for the alleviation of symptoms of an emotional disability.
Speaker 1: Emotional support animals do not have to be task trained
Speaker 1: or have any unique training at all. Their mere presence
Speaker 1: is assistive. Essays don't even have to be dogs. Snakes,
Speaker 1: rats and pigs can be used as e says a
Speaker 1: One photo that circulated the Internet recently claimed to picture
Speaker 1: an emotional support peacock. Airlines don't have to accommodate unusual
Speaker 1: service animals, though, but they do have to provide the
Speaker 1: passenger with a written explanation of their reasoning. We also
Speaker 1: spoke via email with psychologist Tannisia Ranger, who works mainly
Speaker 1: with veterans. She said, the research on the positive impact
Speaker 1: that emotional support animals have on people who are struggling
Speaker 1: with mental illness is pretty plentiful. They have a calming
Speaker 1: of effect lowering stress levels in the owner. They offer
Speaker 1: companionship and help to lessen isolation. They offer a sense
Speaker 1: of security and protection for those who struggle with PTSD,
Speaker 1: and to get a feel for how this works, we
Speaker 1: spoke via email with Ashley Jacobs, CEO of Sitting for
Speaker 1: a Cause. Jacobs has hereditary hemochromatosis, which requires her to
Speaker 1: have regular phlebotomies, to which she always brings her nine
Speaker 1: year old Golden retriever Diamond. Jacob said needles are my
Speaker 1: biggest fear in the world, so my E s A
Speaker 1: comes with me to all my phlebotomies. Having her with
Speaker 1: me keeps me from panicking during the procedure. Yet, Jacobs
Speaker 1: also said she wouldn't take Diamond with her on a plane.
Speaker 1: For one, she doesn't need her dog for traveling. Also quote,
Speaker 1: while she is a very well behaved dog, it's hard
Speaker 1: to guarantee she wouldn't get a little antsy or anxious
Speaker 1: about the new sound, smells, an environment on a plane.
Speaker 1: She's also about seventy pounds and takes up a bit
Speaker 1: of space. So for the comfort of other passengers and
Speaker 1: to avoid giving E s A is a potentially bad
Speaker 1: rep I figured it's best to leave her at home.
Speaker 1: Unlike service dogs, who are allowed access pretty much everywhere
Speaker 1: by federal law, the only legal rights essays have our
Speaker 1: reasonable accommodation in no pet housing and the right to
Speaker 1: accompany their owners in the cabin of a commercial aircraft
Speaker 1: without having to be kept in a container or to
Speaker 1: pay a pet transportation fee, which is typically at least
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars each way. Many passengers looking to avoid
Speaker 1: this fee have started to classify their pets as emotional
Speaker 1: support animals. Psychologist Rangers said there's a lot of fraud
Speaker 1: out there. A cursory Google search will find you any
Speaker 1: number of websites where you can buy letters from clinicians,
Speaker 1: tags and vests which may not be legitimate, and when
Speaker 1: untrained animals tech innocent bystanders, it further creates stigma for
Speaker 1: those who actually need service animals. Christifed Father, operations administrator
Speaker 1: for Assistance Dogs International, said individuals with disabilities often have
Speaker 1: additional stress as they do not know when they may
Speaker 1: encounter a non trained essay dog that may inflict harm
Speaker 1: on them and they're trained assistance dog. The general public
Speaker 1: is also affected as they cannot determine which assistance dog
Speaker 1: team is trained or which ones are non trained ESA dogs.
Speaker 1: The jury is still out on exactly what needs to
Speaker 1: happen to rectify the issue, but most industry experts agree
Speaker 1: that something needs to be done. The air carrier access
Speaker 1: Act lists these specific rules regarding service animals and e
Speaker 1: says aboard aircraft, and states that airlines may request documentation
Speaker 1: for e says, such as the type that Delta requires.
Speaker 1: The rules say airlines can determine whether the animal is
Speaker 1: truly a service a support animal by quote observing the
Speaker 1: behavior of the animal, looking for physical indicators such as harness,
Speaker 1: and accepting the credible verbal assurances of an individual with
Speaker 1: a disability using the animal. Some nineteen states have laws
Speaker 1: prohibiting people from passing off their pets as service animals,
Speaker 1: but they're hard to enforce due to rules from the
Speaker 1: Americans with Disabilities Act concerning what questions a business owner
Speaker 1: may ask about a service animal. For instance, a business
Speaker 1: owner cannot ask for documentation or demonstration of a service
Speaker 1: dogs training. There's also no registry of service trained animals.
Speaker 1: Attorney Aaron Jackson has written about the hostility she encountered
Speaker 1: from airline employees and passengers when she traveled with her
Speaker 1: es A. She said, Unfortunately, the prevalence of e s
Speaker 1: a vest and registry scams desensitizes the public from understanding
Speaker 1: the impact and importance of the essays to individuals who
Speaker 1: truly need them for therapeutic purposes instead of viewing the
Speaker 1: animal as a therapy tool. Fellow travelers may resent other
Speaker 1: passengers who are allowed to bring their pet on the plane. However,
Speaker 1: note that because e Says don't wear identification, other travelers
Speaker 1: may not be able to distinguish between a pet and
Speaker 1: an e s A. Today's episode was written by Alia
Speaker 1: Hot and produced by Tyler Clang for iHeart Media and
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of
Speaker 1: other topics with unexpected peacocks, visit our home planet, how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com.