


There's so much fraud out there, says Hampl, secretary of the club, which helps members train service animals. People do it all the time say it's a service dog when it's not and create so many access problems for people with legitimate service animals.

People with a legitimate need for a service dog may include blind individuals, paraplegics, amputees and others with visible disabilities, but travelers with invisible disabilities such as hearing or emotional problems, diabetes or seizures may also need them, Hampl says.


According to the regulations, passengers are permitted to board a flight with a service dog other than one for emotional or psychiatric support by presenting an airline with written documentation or providing credible verbal assurances that the dog is needed for a disability.

Airlines, the rules say, can limit service dogs for emotional and psychiatric support to passengers with a diagnosed mental or emotional disorder. Airlines may require such passengers to provide documentation from a licensed mental health professional or a medical doctor

Department of Transportation spokeswoman Caitlin Harvey says the agency has received some anecdotal reports of passengers traveling with service animals who appeared to some observers to have no disability.

Harvey cautions that many disabilities are hidden, and passengers aren't required to prove the legitimacy of their need for a service animal to other passengers.

Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability, says the use of service dogs has expanded dramatically over the years. Service dogs can help their owners function more effectively in life and in the workplace and gain access to airplanes and other places they couldn't otherwise navigate.


I have seen some very healthy and capable-looking people with dogs in tow on flights and in airport lounges, says Hurden, who lives in Cheshire, Conn., and works in the plastics industry.

Some dogs traveling as service animals were lap-sized and appeared to be pets, he says.

I have no problem with service dogs being able to travel with their owners, Hurden says. They tend to be very well-behaved and mild-mannered.

Road Warrior Sally Smoczynski of Burr Ridge, Ill., is glad that service dogs enable their owners to fly and be more independent.

Sometimes, though, she sees an owner with no visible disability accompanied by a small dog and wonders whether the animal is a legitimate service dog. Smoczynski, who works in the information security industry, says she has learned to not make a quick judgment.

I have learned that being disabled and needing the use of a service animal does not require a physical disability, she says. I work a lot in the Washington metro area where a lot of veterans and others suffer from crippling anxieties. These wonderfully trained dogs provide a great service.


Lee Shannon, a real estate agent In Park City, Utah, says she has several times seen people including two she has traveled with misrepresenting pets as service animals.

It's a pet peeve of mine, she says.


Saving money may be a motivation for many others.

For most who try to falsely represent their animals as service dogs, Hampl says, it's to save money.



Alaska Airlines:$100 cabin; $100 in cargo hold

American Airlines: $125 cabin; $175 cargo hold

Delta Air Lines: $125; $200

Southwest Airlines: $95; dogs not allowed in cargo hold


Source: USA TODAY reporting

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