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Home » Emotional Support Animal (ESA) » AA Flight Attendant Viciously Attacked By Emotional Support Dog
American AirlinesEmotional Support Animal (ESA)

AA Flight Attendant Viciously Attacked By Emotional Support Dog

Matthew Klint Posted onJuly 24, 2019November 14, 2023 35 Comments

a dog with its mouth open

U.S. airlines have cracked down on emotional support animals this year, but the problem remains…as one American Airlines flight attendant can now painfully attest.

On Monday, an American Airlines flight attendant was bitten by an emotional support dog on a flight to North Carolina. The attacked occurred on AA3506 from Dallas (DFW) to Greensboro (GSO) onboard an Embraer 175 regional jet operated by Envoy Air, a subsidiary of American.

An American Airlines spokesperson would not disclose the breed of dog, but mentioned that the flight attendant required five stitches in his left hand. That, in my mind, constitutes a vicious attack.

Now, the union representing AA flight attendants wants action taken. A statement from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA calls for immediate corrective action:

What happened on yesterday’s American Airlines flight is completely unacceptable and inexcusable.

We need the (U.S.) Department of Transportation to take action now, so events like the one that happened yesterday do not continue to occur on our planes. This is fundamentally about maintaining safety, health and security for passengers and crew, while ensuring accessibility for those who need it.

CONCLUSION

American revised its emotional support animal policy earlier this year, limiting such animals to dogs and cats only. It also required a veterinary health form with vaccination details. But apparently that was still not enough.

Is it time to ban all emotional support animals on commercial flights?

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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35 Comments

  1. Kyle Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 9:52 am

    First of all, they need to disclose the breed. Are there any breed restrictions on AA?

    This is just ridiculous. As someone who suffers from anxiety, I am the last person to minimize it. But, no animal should be allowed in the cabin.

    If someone is afraid to fly, they can take medication or do breathing exercises, or not fly at all. This emotional support animal nonsense has to stop.

    • Heather Reply
      July 24, 2019 at 11:14 am

      I agree with Kyle. There are many treatments available for anxiety that work very well. I also suffer from anxiety and learned coping skills from qualified professional, not a dog.

    • Laurie A White Reply
      August 16, 2019 at 11:50 am

      Any dog can bite. It doesn’t matter the breed. They need to stop the fake service/emotional support animals! My dog was trained & a true service/ emotional support animal would not bite unless it was protecting their owner!

      • Matthew Reply
        August 16, 2019 at 12:07 pm

        Trouble is, any animal can be an emotional support animal.

  2. Santastico Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 10:04 am

    I keep saying: if you need an animal to help you emotionally stay home. I respect your problem but you do not belong on a metal tube locked at 35,000 feet.

  3. DaninMCI Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 10:21 am

    To me, the breed doesn’t matter. I’m an animal lover and owners of two dogs but unless an animal is a certified, qualified “Service Animal” it should never be allowed on an airplane. It’s a hazard to others, it’s a financial risk to the owners that bring them, it’s a security risk, and a possible health or allergen risk to those around it. Those risks are mitigated by properly trained and certified “Service Animals”.

    • Lara Reply
      July 24, 2019 at 8:46 pm

      Hello, I would just like to educate you that here in the USA service dogs do not have any certification! Yes there is certain titles a dog can get as certification of being a good dog but not a service dog certification. The one’s online are scams. The only thing that certifies a dog is their countless days and years of training. I am a service dog trainer and handler myself and the ADA (American disabilities act) specifically says: There are individuals and organizations that sell service animal certification or registration documents online. These documents do NOT convey any rights under the ADA and the Department of Justice does not recognize them as proof that the dog is a service animal. I hope that helped you in knowledge about service animals! If you have any questions please contact me @Larakitten527@gmail.com.

  4. Tripeee Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 10:28 am

    Breed does not matter , there are incredibly well trained and incredibly untrained dogs in every breed . Just need to blanket ban all pets except service animals that are certified

    • Santastico Reply
      July 24, 2019 at 10:40 am

      Certified or not these are animals and one can never predict how they will react in circumstances they for some reason may not feel comfortable. Humans that should know how to behave and react sometimes have stupid and irrational reactions so imagina a dog. You can train, certify, etc.. but at the end it is an animal and animals should not br locked with hundreds of people in a metal tube at 35,000 feet. If you need an emotional support animal to live your life you have an issue and you should not be on a plane. Stay home, travel in your own car, walk but do not enter on a plane with an animal.

      • Chris Reply
        July 24, 2019 at 7:16 pm

        Fine – how many attacks are there by trained animals that serve the disabled. This “there are bad apples in every bunch” bull isn’t going to fly.

        • Butch666 Reply
          July 24, 2019 at 10:09 pm

          Well, all you naysayers are full of dog poop. I have an ESA/therapy dog. She weighs in at 4.5 pounds and has never bitten anyone. You do know that there are consistently news articles about I’ll-behaved passengers. Should we ban passengers because of the very few who behave badly? That would be ridiculous.

          To those stating that if one ‘needs’ to travel with an ESA, they have psychological problems and should never fly. Again, I say that’s dog poop. You people just aren’t all that caring or compassionate.

      • Marie Reply
        July 27, 2019 at 4:23 pm

        What the heck? So because i have anxiety and ptsd I shouldn’t travel or live my life?? No. My support animal helps me everyday. She is my life line. I need her when I’m traveling. Not just in the plane but also when I LAND WHERE EVER I AM GOING. I wouldn’t be able to visit new places without her. I refuse to stay inside 24/7 because of my mental health. I didn’t choose this. Until you go through it you cannot talk. What they NEED to do is require dogs be trained in order to fly or even have them wear muzzles as a precaution for non trained or nervous dogs.

        • Matthew Reply
          July 27, 2019 at 7:28 pm

          I’d be willing to accept a muzzle requirement and see how it goes.

    • Lara Reply
      July 24, 2019 at 8:48 pm

      Hello, I would just like to educate you that here in the USA service dogs do not have any certification! Yes there is certain titles a dog can get as certification of being a good dog but not a service dog certification. The one’s online are scams. The only thing that certifies a dog is their countless days and years of training. I am a service dog trainer and handler myself and the ADA (American disabilities act) specifically says: There are individuals and organizations that sell service animal certification or registration documents online. These documents do NOT convey any rights under the ADA and the Department of Justice does not recognize them as proof that the dog is a service animal. I hope that helped you in knowledge about service animals! If you have any questions please contact me @Larakitten527@gmail.com.

  5. Dustin Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 10:42 am

    No animals on the airplane. If you want to have animals thays your decision. But with that decision should be the decision to not fly. Should ban animals of any kind in the cabin period!

  6. MeanMeosh Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 10:45 am

    I honestly hope AA chooses to pursue this financially against the dog owner. Maybe having someone getting sued into oblivion will make others thing twice about abusing the rules and bringing aboard fake ESAs.

    • Christian Reply
      July 24, 2019 at 3:02 pm

      +1

  7. Paolo Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 10:56 am

    They should be banned from the cabin. But 5 stitches does not suggest a blood-gushing wound…it could easy have been the size of a chihuahua or similar, rather than the frenzied beast at the top of the story.

    • Phil Duncan Reply
      July 24, 2019 at 11:36 am

      As a doc, I disagree, five stiches is a 7-10cm wound at least.

  8. Luke Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 11:01 am

    Yes! Time to ban!!! This is so silly. If you’re too afraid to fly, visit a doctor and get a pill.

  9. Henry P Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 11:06 am

    Matthew, an appropriate story of our contemporary times but here is how ridiculous this issue had become early on.

    When I was VP Safety at American’s principal rival in the early 2000’s, we had a customer show up with – no kidding – an emotional support Horse. It was a very small horse but nonetheless, had a mass bigger than a human being. The gate/station tried to accommodate and thought by putting the horse in front of the passenger in row one with the horse protected from forward motion by the bulkhead they thought it would be OK.

    Well when the crew got onboard they appropriately wanted none of this. I promptly got a call from the Captain and immediately supported the crew’s decision to offload the pax/horse – much to the vocal consternation of both the legal and customer service departments. They were worried about lawsuits and customer accommodation. Not only did I stand my ground but called our FAA Principal to explain the situation and he immediately supported the decision – endgame Legal/CS.

    Can one imagine the mass of even a small horse being thrown around the cabin in heavy turbulence or the dynamics of a runway excursion and/or evacuation? While I understand the emotional support needs of people, the other 100+ people on the aircraft deserve the highest level of safety which would have been compromised. We ultimately put some policy around this, but it was quite the “wild-west” in the early days of support creatures.

    I continue my disappointment with FAA and the airlines that have not mandated child restraint seats for similar reasons, especially for the safety of the child.

    • Kaninefat Reply
      July 24, 2019 at 8:25 pm

      Seriously, what’s next, an emotional support elephant? Comfort should never trump safety, or why do I have to bother with a safety belt?

      • Butch666 Reply
        July 24, 2019 at 10:13 pm

        Oh! I would love an emotional support elephant!

  10. Phil Duncan Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 11:35 am

    I’ll say it again, trained service animals, almost always dogs of placid nature like labs I welcome every time with a blind or deaf person.

    Anyone needing an emotional support animal is too sick to fly.

    I hope the AA crew member and AA for that matter sue the owner of this dog for very large amounts of money and win.

  11. Howard Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 11:44 am

    This wouldn’t have happened with an emotional support parakeet. Just sayin.

  12. Mark in Ithaca Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 11:57 am

    1) The breed doesn’t matter, as others have said. Only properly trained service animals should be permitted aboard as service animals.

    2) You can’t conclude the dog attacked the flight attendant, viciously or otherwise, from the size of the wound or the treatment.

    Five stitches could be tiny stitches applied with plastic surgery methodology to minimize scarring.

    We could also be talking about a dog snapping in reaction to a flight attendant unexpectedly reaching for the dog or the passenger, and the flight attendant yanking the hand away instinctively and thus worsening the wound.

  13. derek Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 12:08 pm

    Viciously is giving human thinking to a dog.

    Severe attack, bloody attack, big bites, that is more accurate. But all sound clumsy in comparison. The owner of the dog could have been vicious, however, and commanded the dog to attack.

  14. James Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 12:44 pm

    Well… That’s what you get by putting animal in human place…. All those politically correct mindset are basically wrong, but sometimes some culture are so toxic to admit their own stupidity.

  15. SST Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 5:58 pm

    BTW, does anyoone know what are the costs of shipping an average dog in cargo vs bringing them in the cabin as support animals? Thanks.

  16. William Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 7:19 pm

    I hope the dog is no longer alive.

  17. Lara Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 8:38 pm

    Emotional support animal should not be on planes. As a service dog handler I struggle to see news articles like this because these so called “emotional support” animals are taking away MY rights as a disabled person to have a service dog with me to help in a medical emergency. I have spent COUNTLESS hours making sure that my dog will NEVER be aggressive, NEVER BITE, and always act appropriately. Yes service dogs can have bad days but that animal would NEVER attack someone. Ban emotional support animals, require proof of training, and DO NOT ban animals all together. Do not take away my rights to go traveling with my MEDICAL EQUIPMENT.

  18. Butch666 Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 10:15 pm

    Sorry, I left this comment as a reply and meant to leave it for the gen pop:

    Well, all you naysayers are full of dog poop. I have an ESA/therapy dog. She weighs in at 4.5 pounds and has never bitten anyone. You do know that there are consistently news articles about I’ll-behaved passengers. Should we ban passengers because of the very few who behave badly? That would be ridiculous.

    To those stating that if one ‘needs’ to travel with an ESA, they have psychological problems and should never fly. Again, I say that’s dog poop. You people just aren’t all that caring or compassionate.

  19. andy773 Reply
    July 24, 2019 at 10:56 pm

    I think the airlines are missing out on a potential new revenue stream. If you want to bring an animal, you have to buy it its own seat and keep it in a pet carrier that will fit in the seat. And the pet stays in the carrier the entire flight. People are protected from bites, the pet owners get their emotional support and the airlines make money. Everyone wins! And if you are so fragile that you have to have your pet in your lap, you are too fragile to fly.

  20. Herbert Latham Reply
    July 25, 2019 at 1:47 pm

    I’d love for you to explain why you chose the picture you used for this article….

    • Kyle Stewart Reply
      July 25, 2019 at 2:00 pm

      I can’t speak for Matthew, but it’s a stock image of an attacking dog. The FA was attacked. What’s the issue?

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