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At the risk of being too serious about a squirrelā¦ 
The real issue is a lack of nationwide regulations on the requirements for service animals. You can buy all sorts of official-looking gear and certificates to claim your pet is a service animal.
And, with airlines allowing service animals to travel free while pet boarding costs money, you give people incentive to abuse the system - especially when this is combined with the fears people have about having their pets harmed if theyāre transported in the aircraft hold.
And, since peopleās pets are not screened or trained to behave themselves properly when in close contact with other people, thereās a serious risk of harm.
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Flight Delayed After Woman Brings An āEmotional Support Squirrelā Onboard
Sigh. I guess that means traveling with my Emotional Support Grizzly Bear is out.
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See now, thatās the problem. Itās all right there in the headline. If your fellow squirrel had not been so darned emotional there might never have been a issue. I myself never bring emotional squirrels onto airplanes because, really, airplanes do nothing to calm their nerves.
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Ok, I consider myself an open-hearted liberal, I have done work involving psychological assessments that required extensive medical training. I consider myself (and others have told me) to be above-average on the empathy scaleā¦
[and perhaps this is sounding exactly like racists starting an argument with āIām not a racist, BUTā¦ā]
BUTā¦ WTF is with the sudden surge of āemotional support animals?ā It was always on the fringe of my consciousness, thinking, sure, dogs are fantastic, people go through trauma, and if they need a dog to help them through daily life, go for it.
But then the daughter of a very good friend said that she now has a prescription (or license, or whatever they call it) for her dog (that sheās had for a few years) to be her emotional support animal. And so she can now take it anywhere.
Of course I donāt know the details of her issues. I know sheās prone to at least mild depression, but sheās held jobs, gotten promotions, she socializes regularly, seems like a very typical young woman in this insane world. Perhaps a little prone to substance (ab)useā¦
Iām at work right now. I would like nothing more than to have one or all of my dogs curled up at my feet. I KNOW my day would go much better! Less stress, fewer depressive thoughtsā¦ Itās a no-brainer.
Maybe Iām finally getting to the grumpy old man stage, but it strikes me as over coddling. Youngāuns need to learn to navigate this world, and you wonāt always have an animal to help you. I donāt know where Iām going with this rant, it all just seems silly. I think dogs should be allowed most everywhere anywayā¦
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All true. Which makes it difficult for those who have well-trained service animals. My daughter worked at a place that trained dogs for a variety of tasks, the training took months, the dogs could do amazing things, but to do it correctly takes time and money. If I remember the dogs cost over $20,000.
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OT, but not really: In Banff, Alberta there is a street junction where Moose St. and Squirrel St. cross:
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My daughter used to travel back and forth to college with her pet Beta fish named Dirk. She drove the 800 miles with him sloshing in the cup holder. He lived for years.
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If that happened to me, Iād be dancing the Lambada. And I donāt danceā¦
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Yeah, why not let chickens fly too. No discrimination. They let jackasses like Trump fly (though not commercial these days).
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Bet he keeps that middle seat clear.
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Fun fact: there is work being done right now in the 840 acres of Central Park to count the number of squirrels in residence. Stand up and be counted!
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Also, if you need an emotional support animal to go grocery shopping, donāt shop. Order in.
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Claim Rated: TRUE.
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Someone brings an emotional support dog on that flight and all hell would have broken loose.
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Fun fact about city park squirrels - First introduced intentionally in Philadelphia in the late 1800ās for all of your amusement.
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So, if, for example, someone suffered from crippling anxiety because of, oh, a IED brain trauma in Afghanistan, or being gang raped as a teen, or having been ripped out of a parents arms as a and imprisoned by fascists as a child, or just because oneās brain is wired that way, and a support dog helped that person deal with that well enough to, oh, fly to a parentās funeral without having a panic attack, that person should just sit at home instead?
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Did I tell you about the time a passenger was carrying his emotional support weasel from BOS to HNL via SFO. I learned later it was destroyed by inspectors on the ground when he landed in HNL.
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