Should emotional support animals be allowed to fly in the cabin with you?

The uproar over emotional support animals in the airline’s cabin took wing again with the recent rejection of a peacock as a proper companion. But if a person needs that animal, what’s the big deal? It becomes apparent after reading the regulations in the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Air Carrier Access Act governing such animals and it becomes even more apparent with some expert input. Here’s what you need to know as a traveler, and it doesn’t matter whether you are for or against animals in the cabin.

--There’s an important difference between service animals and emotional support animals, said Dr. Sandra Barker, director of the Center for Human-Animal Interaction at Virginia Commonwealth University and a professor of psychiatry at VCU’s School of Medicine. “Emotional support animals are not required to be trained, which opens a lot of questions and concerns about public safety,” she said.

Recently incidents include a dog that bit its owner’s seatmate on a Delta flight and a child who was slightly injured by a dog during the boarding of a Southwest flight.

This is not to say that all emotional support dogs or animals are badly behaved. Nor is it to say that all service animals are perfect either, but they are trained to remain focused on their job, not on distractions.

Service animals are evaluated for temperament before they undergo training, Barker said.

“If something startles [a service animals] it’s OK to be started,” Barker said. “But if a wheelchair falls over [and there is] a sign of aggression, that is a clear indicator not being an appropriate” candidate for the service role.

Owners of service animals also undergo training to enable them to make the most effective use of their animal, said Dr. Catherine Salmon, , psychology professor and also part of the human animal study advisory group at the University of Redlands.

--The Air Carrier Access Act, which describes itself as prohibiting “discrimination on the basis of disability in air travel,” does not differentiate between service animals and emotional support animals. Such an animal is one “that is individually trained or able to provide assistance to a person with a disability; or any animal that assists persons with disabilities by providing emotional support.”

But the Americans With Disabilities Act, a 1990 law that describes itself as a “ civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life,:” recognizes only dogs and miniature horses as service animals only and says they that animals “whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA…Service animals are working animals, not pets.”

--The less exclusive Air Carrier Access Act may have unwittingly given rise to an increasing number of emotional support animals. United, for instance, flew 77,000 of them in 2017, a 77% increase from the previous year, the Chicago Tribune quoted a United rep as saying. https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-united-tightens-rules-emotional-support-animals-0202-story.html

--Not everyone who travels with an emotional support animal is honestly in need of such help.

OK, so I do have a wonderful grasp of the obvious, but I don’t have statistics to prove this because, really, who’s going to say, “Of course, I’m gaming the system.”

Absent that, we can be sure that some people claim emotional support status because they worry about their animal flying in the belly of the plane. Some don’t want to pay the fee to fly a pet in the cabin. And some just like their pet so well they don’t want to be separated from them.

Anyone can outfit their pet with an “emotional support animal” vest, but that doesn’t mean it’s true anymore than wearing a stethoscope around your neck makes you a doctor.

--As a result, both United and Delta have strengthened regulations governing emotional support animals.

As of March 1, United now requires “IN addition to providing a letter from a licensed medical/mental health professional, customers will need to provide a veterinary health form documenting the health and vaccination records for the animal as well as confirming that the animal has been trained to behave properly in a public setting.” Delta’s requirements are much the same.

The paperwork must be submitted at least 48 hours in advance.

--So where does this leave us? In a quandary. Barker and Salmon, interviewed separately, hold slightly differing opinions. Both agree that animals can provide tremendous benefits to their owners, and studies support that.

Barker, however, would recommend treating the underlying disorder rather than relying solely on an emotional support animal. She has been asked to write the letter as a health professional in support of the need for that animal and “I have not felt comfortable doing so,” she said, “adding, “I don’t know the animal’s temperament or background.”

Salmon is a bit more sympathetic about emotional support animals (not to be confused with service dogs who have been trained to help someone who suffers post-traumatic stress) but hopes that people who want their pet inflight will “pay and put them under the seat or leave them at home.”

Readers, how would you address this ongoing conundrum? Write to travel@latimes.com. Please include your name and city of residence.

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