|
?:reviewBody
|
-
Most commercial airlines nowadays allow passengers with disabilities to travel with emotional support or psychiatric assist animals, but, as a United Airlines customer discovered recently, there are certain limitations to that policy that aren't up for negotiation. In late January 2018, Jet Set TV, a travel talk show, reported on their Facebook page that an unidentified woman and her emotional support peacock were unable to board their flight out of Newark Liberty International Airport: Incredulous? So was the bystander who shot this video of the woman entering the airport with the peacock on her shoulder: Despite the scanty details, national news outlets like Fox News picked up the story after confirming with United Airlines that the woman and her peacock were, in fact, booked for a flight but denied boarding passes. We followed up with the airline, whose spokesperson told us that the peacock did not meet the U.S. Department of Transportation's support animal guidelines for a number of reasons, including its weight and size. These are the DOT criteria for evaluating whether or not unusual service animals should be allowed in the passenger cabin: The same guidelines permit airlines to require documentation of a person's mental or emotional disability by a licensed health care professional before granting permission for accompaniment by a service animal. Albeit true that peacocks aren't permitted to fly United, there's nothing to prevent them from having an Instagram page, which is how we learned that the bird in question is named Dexter, and that after being turned away at the Newark Airport he was on his way across the country, at last report, via automobile: As it turns out, Dexter the Peacock is something of a celebrity in his hometown of Bushwick, New York, where he lives with his owner, a photographer and conceptual artist named Ventiko.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}