2 adults, 1 child, 1 Peacock please!!

Well its safe to say in all my years of working in Travel, I have never head anything quite like this, and I have heard some stories in the past believe me!!

But of late, airlines have found themselves having to crack down on the list of “emotional support animals” allowed onboard aircraft due to the number of “increasing incidents” onboard.

Just last week in Newark airport New York, United Airlines had to deny a PEACOCK travelling onboard one of their flights. The New York resident who was a city based performance artist arrived at Newark airport with her Peacock in readiness to fly onto their destination. I am sure the peacock was all set with its passport and bikini, in the hope they were going some place tropical. But that dream was short lived for the peacock as he/she was denied boarding.

Its been claimed it was just a publicity stunt, but this has sent shock waves through to those that deservedly need their emotional support animal with them.

But what does or should constitute an emotional support animal, and should they be allowed to go everywhere with us, should we have that right. Are we all again just too demanding of our human rights.  United Airlines say requests have risen 75% to 76000 a year. From next month there will be tougher rules on animals carried by passengers except for guide dogs for the blind.

Passengers must prove that their animal has been “trained to behave properly in public” [ how you do that I dont know!!].

There is also now a banned list of animals including Hedgehogs, ferrets, insects, rodents, snakes, spiders and reptiles. Delta airlines has also faced requests to carry “comfort turkeys” in the past, maybe that was in December.

Virgin Atlantic will only carry dogs as emotional support animals, and British Airways?? nothing at all!!

So sorry if I have hampered your plans to take patch the Guinea Pig to Niagara Falls, not going to happen I am afraid!!

And I have to say, if I got on a plane and saw a peacock in one of the seats, I would be needing emotional support.

Although you may be pleased to hear you can still take your support animal oboard some cruise lines:

http://www.cruise.co.uk/bulletin/guide-dogs-cruise-ships/

Happy travels with your beloved animals 🙂