Quote:
Originally Posted by opendoor
Why distinguish between service dogs and regular dogs in any situation then? By your logic, people should be able to take their pets into restaurants, grocery stores, movie theaters, hospitals, etc. since the inconvenience for others is apparently the same regardless of whether its a service dog or not.
You're trying to create a black and white issue where there isn't one. What if moving the allergy sufferer only slightly alleviates their symptoms and they still have a miserable flight due to the animal? Should they be forced to incur that due to the whim of a pet owner? What if the allergy sufferer doesn't even notice the pet until they're in the air and they begin to suffer symptoms. Should people be playing musical chairs at 30,000 feet to accommodate a pet owner?
And really, none of this matters since there are laws in place to ensure that people with service dogs are accommodated; no such laws exist for someone who can't be bothered to put their dog in cargo or put it in a kennel. It's really as simple as that. Service dogs are considered a special case and are given special privileges that other dogs do not enjoy all the time because they serve a specific function.
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The first bolded portion is a different argument from the one made before, and I agree that if simply sitting apart doesn't solve the problem then the difference between service and regular pets comes into play. However, if all it takes is 10 rows of separation there's really no reason to differentiate based on the animals role. The end result is the same. As to the whole mid-flight discovery issue, if that's a real concern limit animals to 1 or 2 rows and allow people with allergies to choose seats at the other end of the plane.
Interesting that you cite laws while at the same time using the slippery slope type argument as to animals in hospitals and restaurants. The reason animals aren't allowed in many of those places is the presence of laws, be they health department or sanitation code laws. No such laws exist in this case, and airlines have a revenue stream to protect or dispose of depending on what their customers desire. I imagine given a similar situation you'd find restaurants that would allow dogs in some places, I know of one near my apartment that would almost certainly do so. So yes, laws exist specifically to accomodate service dogs, but that's only part of the story. The presence of a revenue stream means just as much, and expecting airlines to do away with it is unrealistic assuming it's not outweighed by other concerns.