Why Plane Travel will be Different for ESAs in 2021

Even for animal-lovers, it could be hard to enjoy the company of someone else’s animal when they’re causing a ruckus. Until recently – January 11 of this year, to be exact – plane passengers frequently had to deal with animals of all different species that were largely untrained, and usually unrestrained.

These weren’t just pets – airlines have always had pretty strict regulations for how to transport these animals. No, these were emotional support animals, and no matter how much airlines wanted to reduce their presence on flights, there wasn’t anything they could do about it.

How did so many ESAs end up on planes in the first place, and why won’t they be allowed to board planes freely anymore?

First things first. Emotional support animals had to wait for years before they were granted the same status from airlines as service animals. Eventually, the Department of Transportation was convinced that they were as necessary to their owners just as service animals were, so they should get the same treatment.

Now to answer the second question. At the beginning, there wasn’t that much of a problem with unruly ESAs. There were definitely some incidents involving support animals, but not enough to rock the boat. Well, not for a while anyway. Between greater awareness and the rising use of support animals, more and more ESAs started boarding planes – and getting on other passengers’ nerves.

People started registering complaints with the airlines about having to deal with animals that they simply didn’t know what to do with, like turkeys, pigs, or monkeys. According to the National Service Animal Registry, there’s a brief list of animal species that any airline is allowed to prohibit, but that doesn’t really narrow anything down when an ESA can be any species at all – right down to beetles. Airline employees would prevent obviously dangerous species from getting onto the aircraft, but there was still a huge gray area. What about the ESAs that weren’t technically dangerous, but would still spook a lot of people? Even worse, many of these ESAs would roam down the aisles, relieve themselves wherever they wanted, or make incessant noise. There were even instances of injuries from bites, and severe allergic reactions.

While all these animals were identified as ESAs, some of them had been brought onto the planes with faked documents. Specifically, a fraudulent psychiatrist’s letter (the main requirement that airlines have for ESAs) that was easy to buy online, and often much cheaper than the airlines’ fees. Since there’s no certification program for emotional support animals, this letter is the only thing making the animal “official” for the airline. By the same token, the airline has no way of determining if each individual letter is genuine –they’re all from different mental healthcare practitioners anyway. The scam really picked up speed in the last several years, and pet owners started bringing their pets onto planes in considerable numbers.

According to Delta Airlines, the number of animals they transported doubled between 2017 and 2019 – from 250,000 to 500,000. Some of those were pets that rode in a crate; some of them were service animals, and some were genuine ESAs. Looking at those numbers, though, it’s not hard to imagine how many fake ESAs made their way onto the flights too. It was clear that something had to be done. Airlines were concerned about losing the trust of their passengers; they didn’t want people to think that any plane ride could involve being around unpredictable or dangerous animals. Airline staff know to detain animals that are behaving aggressively before boarding the plane, but most of the animals wouldn’t start misbehaving until after they boarded. It may not have been because they were aggressive to begin with; usually, it was just because the support animal became unsettled around so many strangers in such a small space.

Between one thing and another, the DOT decided in 2018 that it was time to take a look at the rules. In the first part of 2019, they made the announcement online that the Air Carrier Access Act (the regulations governing this whole issue) would be rewritten. Thousands of people commented on the announcement with their opinions on the matter. The DOT considered these comments as they were changing the ACAA; they also listened to advice and information from advocacy groups and airlines.

Once the dust had settled and the new rules were published, ESA advocates felt like the DOT had swung too far in the other direction. For instance, it might have been necessary to require ESAs to be crated or leashed, but why let the airlines start charging pet fees? There’s no telling what the thought process was, especially over the course of two years, but the decision has been made, and it’s likely to stay that way for a while.

Apparently, the DOT decided to be thorough when they were rewriting the ACAA, because they changed the regulations for service dogs too. Psychiatric service dogs used to need a letter like the one used for ESAs, but now they’ll use the same two DOT-published documents as all other service animals: the “US Department of Transportation Service Animal Relief Attestation”, and the “US Department of Transportation Service Animal Air Transportation Form”. Essentially, these two documents assure the airline that the service animal knows how to relieve itself appropriately, and has been trained to help its handler with a particular task.

Other changes for service animals include a limit of two for each passenger; a size limit (they have to fit by the owner’s feet or in their lap); and a harness/leash requirement while they’re on the plane, or even in an airport.

This is a blow for ESA owners and advocates, there’s no doubt about that. There’s no clear way forward to changing the DOT’s regulations at the moment, but one thing that’s possible to change is public opinion. The animals that caused the most fuss got the most attention; maybe with time, people will realize that most ESAs are just friendly animals that help make their owner’s lives better.