Transportation of Service Animals on Airlines

On May 23, the Department of Transportation (DOT) published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) regarding regulations of service animals under the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). Because rulemaking is a lengthy process, the Department simultaneously issued an Interim Statement of Enforcement Office Priorities to inform the public about how it plans to target enforcement of the Act with respect to the transportation of service animals in airplane cabins until the regulations are revised. According to the Statement, the DOT's "Enforcement Office will focus on ensuring the transport of the most commonly used service animals, such as dogs, cats and miniature horses [?!], but may take action against carriers regarding the transport of other service animals on a case-by-case basis." According to the Statement: "Airlines are expected to continue to comply with the existing service animal requirement which allows U.S. airlines to deny transport only to certain unusual service animals such as snakes, other reptiles, ferrets, rodents, and spiders." The Department is accepting public comments on the ANPRM, and has specifically asked for feedback on ten questions related to topics such as documentation required by passengers, leash/harness requirements, and how to safely transport large service animals. Comments are due on June 7, and can be submitted here.