It was allegedly an emotional support animal. Stavley said he plans to investigate whether the dog that bit Gabriella was a legitimate emotional support dog. “There’s a lot of abuse of this emotional support animal situation,” Stavley said, “and folks who have legitimate service animals — people who are blind and need guide dogs and the like — are kind of getting thrown into the same boat [as emotional support animals]. Alaska Airlines was among the airlines that changed their policy on emotional support animals in 2018. When United announced its policy change in February 2018, the airline said it had witnessed a 75 percent increase in customers bringing emotional support animals aboard.

Source: Washington Post February 28, 2019 10:44 UTC