Pets on planes

[winston]

A woman was removed from a plane on Tuesday Sept 26, 2017 because she had a pet allergy and there were 2 pets on the plane. Southwests on report says neither of the pets were American with Disabilitiy Act pets. Why was the passenger that complained removed from the flight? Why weren't the animals removed or placed in the cargo hole? ADA only protects dogs that are true service animals, emotional support animals are not ADA protected. When did animals become more important than people?

[TheMiddleSeat]

https://www.southwestaircommunity.com/t5/Southwest-Stories/Response-to-Customer-Incident-on-Flight-1...

[m1waters]

This doesn't surprise me at all. As a frequent flier of SW,  I have seen many instances of SW catering to passengers with bogus "service animals"  over the needs of passengers with allergies to dogs. The irony is that the passenger with an allergy must produce documentation of their allergy but passengers with "service animals" don't have to provide any proof that their animal provides any necessary service to the passenger. Southwest always chooses the rights of pets over human passengers. i am sick of it..

[m1waters]

As I write this, I am on a SW flight from Seattle to St. Louis. There is a pre-board passenger with small dog that I assume she passed off as a service animal of some type because it wasn't in a carrier. That is a usual occurrence in my experience flying numerous Southwest flights.  I have previously seen dogs in the isle and on the seats but today was a first. This dog was laying on the lady's fold down tray in plain site of the flight attendants linking something off the tray. This is completely unsanitary and a health risk to future passengers that sit in that seat on the next flight and use that tray for their food. SW does not clean or disinfect the tray tables between flights. I know that SW fiercely defends service animals and pets rights to fly in the cabin over the comfort and medical consequences to other passengers but now they have stooped to a new level of exposing passengers to unsanitary conditions.

[LizF]

I lost a significant amount of my hearing from an autoimmune disorder. I can't hear soft noises or any higher pitched sounds such as a SMOKE DETECTOR, CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR, POLICE AND AMBULANCE SIRENS, TORNADO SIRENS, RATTLESNAKES, doorbells, kitchen timers, rattlesnakes, and etc... I am blessed with a hearing alert service dog that alerts me upon hearing such important sounds. I have never experienced a fire or CO2 poisoning in my home, but my service dog alerted me to a timber rattlesnake that was within 2 yards of my feet and a tornado siren.

This is the USA. There are rights for people with disabilities in the USA. My hearing alert service dog weighs 4.6 pounds and you may think it is a pet, but I depend upon my service dog to save my life.