Canadian Carriers Should Focus on Needs of Passengers Requiring Support Animals, Advocate Says

High-profile cases involving exotic species may make headlines, but they detract from the needs of those who require emotional support animals in order to travel, says passenger advocate Gabor Lukacs. Canadian carriers, he adds, need to do more to focus on the requirements of these passengers.

From peacocks and pigs to dogs and cats, there’s no denying that emotional support animals are now commonplace both at the airport as well as down the airplane aisle. While instances of travelers in the U.S. flying or attempting to fly with more exotic species have garnered quite a lot of news coverage as of late, one passenger advocate in Canada says that the nation’s airlines should do more to focus on the specific needs of Canadian passengers.

Gabor Lukacs said that recent high-profile cases detract from the needs of those who rely on their support animals to travel. Just last month, a Spirit Airlinestraveler said that she was forced to flush her support hamster down the toilet after being told she could not fly with it.

Speaking to The Chronicle Herald, Lukacs said, “We need to move away the focus from the animal to the fellow passenger.”

While not all U.S. carriers accept a wide variety of animals, Canadian airline WestJet has made provisions for a number of species in its policy relating to emotional support animals. This includes monkeys, pigs, miniature horses as well as cats. Provisions for any other animals are decided on an individual basis.

Air Canada, however, is much more straightforward regarding its policies and allows only dogs on its flights.

Canadian carriers, Lukacs explained, must make accommodations for those with disabilities who rely on support animals to travel.

Regardless of how exotic the species of the support animal may seem, Lukacs is eager to remind passengers that it is fulfilling a necessary function. “The animal is not there as a kind of luxury, they are simply there to make sure that a person with a disability is able to enjoy the same way to travel as people who don’t have disabilities,” he said.

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