The U.S. Department of Transportation has taken a long time to weigh in on the matter of traveling with medical aid animals such as service animals and emotional support animals. For more than 20 years, airlines have been asking the DOT to regulate the issue, giving them guidance and power to make the best decisions for their passengers and their revenue. But now, it has.
The DOT’s ruling, announced November 25, 2020, states that transportation carriers such as airlines, buses, trains, or taxis “are not required to recognize emotional support animals as service animals and may treat them as pets.”
Air carriers, specifically, are also now permitted to limit their privileges for service animals to dogs alone. Miniature horses may also still be privileged as service animals, but that will be have to be adjudicated via the Americans with Disabilities Act.
According to “Traveling by Air with Service Animals,” a part of the final ruling, a service animal is defined by the DOT as “a dog, regardless of breed or type, that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.”
The difference between a service animal and an emotional support animal is that an ESA, while still attached to a “qualified individual with a disability,” is not trained to perform specific tasks in aid of that person. Emotional support animals serve their function by simply existing as a stabilizing presence.
While the ADA has been clear on the distinction all along, airlines have pressured the DOT for a ruling due to passengers abusing the ESA category to get fee-free transport for their pets. And occasionally livestock.
Passengers with legitimate service animals have also vocally demanded tighter control over the practice, as abuse of it leads to distrust, confrontations, and complications for those who have no choice but to travel with their aid animal. More than 15,000 comments were reviewed by the DOT after they announced their proposal of this rule in February 2020.
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