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Here’s a crazy story that you just can’t make up…
A woman boarded a US Airways flight in Connecticut with her pet pig however he didn’t get to fly. After the pig became disruptive, she was asked to leave the plane.
Imagine what it must’ve been like for the person potentially getting stuck next to her.
A University of Amherst professor thought the woman was carrying a duffel bag when she came onboard but soon realized what she was actually carrying when she went to sit down next to him.
Here is what Professor Jonathan Skolnick had to say about what took place (according to the ABC News article), “We could smell it and it was a pig on a leash,” he said. “She tethered it to the arm rest next to me and started to deal with her stuff, but the pig was walking back and forth.”
He also said that he was terrified of the thought of being on the plane with the pig and thought it weighed around 50-70 pounds.
You’d think that the woman could’ve at least bought an extra seat for her pig.
ABC News wrote that American Airlines, the parent company of US Air confirmed that the passenger did bring a pig onboard as an emotional support animal.
Find out more about the story from ABC News here.
I’m a bit surprised that a pig is considered a service animal and wondered if all animals could be classified as such.
For our flight in late December, I was thinking of bringing my pet goldfish onboard to comfort me but then I realized that there was a problem due to the liquids ban…
I decided to head over to TSA.gov and look up some of the rules about service animals. According to what I came across, only two animals were listed on the page- service dogs and monkey helpers!
When I came across the TSA’s rules for monkey helpers I couldn’t stop laughing so you’ll have to read all about them yourself at TSA.gov here.
I haven’t been lucky enough to see any service animals besides dogs on a flight. Have you ever seen a pig or monkey helper on a flight???
Big Difference Between Service Animal & Emotional Support Animal. You don’t know her or her situation & he is closer to 47 pounds then 70 …. why not talk to someone on the flight who wasn’t afraid of a pig and get the facts straight.
I thought “When pigs fly!” was just an expression.
an “emotional support animal” is not a service animal. Service animals have to undergo training and certification that is very rigorous, and they are specifically trained to perform certain tasks to help disabled people. Emotional Support Animals are not allowed on any flight, or in any restaurant. Anybody can get their animal declared an ESA without any oversight (you can do it online) it means nothing.
There’s a great New Yorker Magazine article about this a few weeks ago, where the author got into restaurants, on flights, on buses etc with “emotional support” Alpacas, Boa constrictors, pigs, turtles… most of the time she was allowed on without any checking of credentials, because people are confused and think they’re service animals. (she got on the flight with a pig as well, and got to board early! Jetblue I think)