Traveling With A Service Animal? Delta Has New Rules For That

Delta Airlines on Friday announced new guidelines for passengers traveling with service and support animals, requiring travelers to prove that their animals can behave. In announcing the new guidelines, Delta cited an increase in animal incidents, including a dog attack that required a passenger to get 28 stitches.

Delta said its new guidelines were the result of a lack of regulation "that has led to serious safety risks involving untrained animals in flight." Since 2016, Delta says it has seen an 84 percent increase in animal incidents like urination, defecation and biting. The airline also said that in 2017, its employees reported increased acts of aggression like barking, growling, lunging and biting from support and service animals, which it says is "behavior not typically seen in these animals when properly trained and working."

The new guidelines, which take effect March 1, will require that passengers show a signed document confirming that their psychiatric support animal and service animal can behave in addition to an already required letter prepared and signed by a doctor or mental health professional. Passengers will also have to show proof of health or vaccinations 48 hours before the flight.

The airline said its new requirements are intended to protect its customers, employees and service and support animals. Delta says it carries about 700 service or support animals daily and close to 250,000 annually.

"Putting this into perspective, Delta carries more than 180 million passengers annually," the airline said. "Customers have attempted to fly with comfort turkeys, gliding possums known as sugar gliders, snakes, spiders and more. Ignoring the true intent of existing rules governing the transport of service and support animals can be a disservice to customers who have real and documented needs."

The new requirements don't apply to pets that stay in under-seat kennels during flights. Emotional support animals and service animals both travel for free and don't need to caged during a flight.

The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a service animal as an animal that performs a task directly related to a person's disability.

Emotional support animals, comfort animals, and therapy dogs are not considered service dogs under the ADA.

"These support animals provide companionship, relieve loneliness, and sometimes help with depression, anxiety, and certain phobias, but do not have special training to perform tasks that assist people with disabilities," according to the ADA.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo by Julio Cortez, File/Associated Press