More Boeing 737 Max Issues, Emotional Support Dog Mauls Passenger, Dream Trip Ends Abruptly

Not poking holes. Just trying to explain reality. Don’t know where you live but I have no problem finding a doctor, a good doctor here in the Los Angeles and suburban area. I can pick any doctor I want and I’m covered. No problem with getting a doctor here, especially when you have a private insurance AND Medicare. Doctors and hospitals love you when you come in the front office with both! I even purchase an annual Allianz travel plan with medical. But yes, if you’re on Obamacare, you probably have limited options.

There are plenty of bad doctors, doctors that are scamming Medicare or insurance for example. You hear about it all the time. BTW, just because you say doctors aren’t accepting new patients, it doesn’t mean they’re all honest. Many of them have back-office staff working the ICD-9 codes to inflate the patient’s bill to include charges for services and supplies never given!

Perhaps what’s worse is the whole cottage industry of fake documents. People might question my driver’s license, Real ID, and passport but they’re not going to involve themselves with the time and expense to check whether a person is sane or nuts, healthy, mentally needy or that official (fake) ES document. They won’t question whether that a service animal is really a service animal, because it’s wearing one of those loud “I am a Service Animal” shirts, the badge of honor and pass to entitlement.

In my world, as I already said, genuine Emotional Support animals could ride as cargo, inside cages. Scammers that want to bring along their animals could pay the same rate. The general, flying public shouldn’t be paying one single penny for this accommodation. People that really, really need that furry, feathery, scaly or slimy critter next them should drive their own car to their destination or go with somebody else who can drive them. Domestic air travel has become so bad with driving to airports, traffic, congestion, parking, security lines, powerful cabin crews, outrageous and demanding travelers. Now, I have to put up with a full line of critters, all with unpredictable behaviors? No, I’ll drive my electric car, get free power, enjoy hotel status, and “smell the roses!” Besides, I’m retired so I can.

#1 and #2. – MDs and Vets have a financial incentive to sign the approval forms. How many pet owners will go back to a doctor or vet that didn’t approve their form? Consider all the doctors that hand out opioid prescriptions like candy or for monetary gain. No wonder we’re in a opioid epidemic. In today’s courts, a doctor or vet that falsifies a form for a pet to fly in a passenger cabin won’t even get a slap on the wrist. Passengers are sue crazy, no pun intended. Airlines practice suit aversion.

#3 – MDs and Vets make fraudulent certifications often. With over 250 DSM’s, they can easily “slot” a person into one of them. Seriously, how much extra would it cost the airlines to investigate? Won’t happen.

#4 – Keep travelers safe. Yes, ban the animals. Passengers will be guaranteed to be safe from animals, bites, urine, feces, howling, growling, smelling, showing teeth, and more. Ya, the animals trained one replied recently. (I will admit some animals actually smell better than some passengers.)

#5 – Buying an animal its own seat is fine, in cargo or baggage compartment plus all associated fees to keep the animal alive for the journey. Buy it its own seat in a passenger cabin and you might find yourself being the next passenger to be in that seat after the animal was sick, vomited or urinated in it. Today’s disgruntled cabin crew may never report it, so as to have a “little fun” with the next passenger that is often perceived to be over-demanding (his rights), confrontational and to be treated worse than the animal.

The whole emotional support animal thing is fairly simple to fix.

1) Require a certification by an MD that the person needs an ES animal.
2) Require a veterinarian to certify that the animal is capable of dealing with people & travel on a plane.
3) If the MD or vet make a fraudulent certification, they lose their license.
4) Keep other travelers safe. Keep dog/snake/alligator jaws muzzled at all times. Claws to be sheathed.
5) If the animal will not be on the person’s lap the entire trip, the person must buy a second seat.

These are all pretty simple concepts. Instituting them would make it so that genuine emotional support animals could fly, while creating disincentives for people to try to skirt the rules.

The news about 737 MAX problems should be the most disconcerting if not interesting, but the airline Emotional Support animal stories are really interesting, amusing, if not depressing. I’m old school and an old fart. When I was a kid, there were no commercial jets, just a bunch of DC-4’s. The thought of having a menagerie of critters on board the aircraft next to passengers would have certainly been strange and bizarre. I guess back then, people were only sane or crazy. (People that wore odd colored clothes were “crazy”.) Today there are about 250 classified forms of mental illness. It seems psychiatrists and lawyers can tailor-fit you into one or more of these DSM’s, thereby making you (get ready for it) “Entitled!”

Yes, there are mentally ill people. Having served in the Vietnam war, I saw some really bad stuff, but after being honorably discharged, I moved on. Ya, life is a bitch.

Today, we have way, way too many “mentally ill,” “heroes,” “victims,” “disabled” and way too many “entitled”. Everyone gets a “participation trophy”. Medical doctors, psychiatrists, and other professionals are quick to sign you off as certifiably “crazy,” sorry, or “challenged”. Give ’em a plastic parking placard, give ’em his emotional support chicken, snake, or lizard! Give him his pass to a wheelchair, pushed by an airline attendant down the jetway along with 15 family members! Most important, give him his meds! I’m in first class and board last!

I’m sure I’ll get flamed but I don’t care. I still travel a lot with a cane because I have arthritis, bad arthritis. I refuse opioid pain killers, which will certainly do me in before the arthritis. When traveling abroad, I use buses to get around. Most often there is only standing room, but young people, are quick to offer me his or her seat. I refuse, because I refuse to be “entitled”. The joy of their respect is overwhelming!

I feel sorry for people that get injured by emotional support animals and hope the airlines are soon able to ban all of them or offer passengers access to a special cabin, the Emotional Support Animal Cabin. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue? Then again, the airline would be sued for discriminating against a “class”……. We’re doomed.

Rather an emotional dog lol. Anyways the link to CBS News seems to be missing, the text is blue-lighted but no response to clicks.

maybe .gov should shut down Boeing till all of this is righted or take the airplane out of service permanently

I disagree with the emotional support animal comment. Most airlines require documentation be submitted 48-72 hours prior to the flight online. Southwest requires you check-in manually and show a letter from a mental health professional.