Airlines and the FAA Are Abetting Fraud

What if your emotional support animal gives me anxiety because it’s an untrained human-aggressive Pit Bull that could kill a child?

Joke?  Nope: true story.

The mother of a 5-year-old girl mauled in the face by a pit bull at Portland International Airport has filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against the Port of Portland for allegedly letting a dangerous “emotional support animal” into the airport without a carrier.

The lawsuit lists two other defendants: the dog’s owner, Michelle Brannan, and Alaska Airlines. The suit claims Brannan should have known that her dog had “vicious propensities.” The suit says the airline is at fault for allegedly allowing Brannan to bring a dangerous dog into the gate waiting area, where the attack happened, when the dog wasn’t a trained service animal and wasn’t properly confined.

The emotional support animal scam has to end.  The airlines and the FAA are abetting fraud by allowing this to continue.  There are true service dogs with real training from certified schools (and with muzzles) or nothing else.  You have a small dog or cat that can fit into a crate?  Fine.  You have an untrained dog that cannot be crated except as baggage?  Then he's baggage and goes in the hold, no exceptions.