Found the on a blog over at RealWorldReport.com and had to
laugh! This is crazy! Now I know how to smuggle anything into the
country, just let the pig eat it and wait till we land! WoW!!
"Here we have it again, someone was paid to
come up this non-sense. Can we put a dollar value on what it took to get
this down on paper?"
A federal agency has issued a new ruling on pork — but not the kind most commonly associated with Washington. The U.S. Department of Transportation has determined that airline passengers may board a plane with a potbellied pig if the animal is there to lend “emotional support.” The ruling was included in a manual published by the DOT in the Federal Register on July 5, “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel: Draft Technical Assistance Manual.” The manual states: “A passenger arrives at the gate accompanied by a potbellied pig. She claims that the potbellied pig is her service animal. What should you do? “Generally, you must permit a passenger with a disability to be accompanied by a service animal. However, if you have a reasonable basis for questioning whether the animal is a service animal, you may ask for some verification.” The manual defines a service animal as an “animal individually trained to perform functions to assist a person with a disability; animal that has been shown to have the innate ability to assist a person with a disability.” If the verification is satisfactory, potbellied pigs, which can weigh as much as 300 pounds, must be accepted aboard the plane. Wendy Ponzo, vice president of the North American Potbellied Pig Association, told CNS News that the pigs can be trained to open and close doors and use a litter box. “They also seem to have a sense if the owner is not feeling well to stay by them,” said Ponzo, who has multiple sclerosis. Miniature horses and monkeys can also qualify as service animals and be brought on a plane, according to the manual. But carriers can bar passengers from bringing aboard rodents, ferrets, spiders, snakes and other reptiles — not to mention snow globes, sporting goods, and liquids over three ounces. One more bureaucratic tidbit from the DOT: A carrier that declines to allow a passenger to bring an animal aboard a plane must document the decision in writing and provide it to the passenger within 10 days.
A federal agency has issued a new ruling on pork — but not the kind most commonly associated with Washington. The U.S. Department of Transportation has determined that airline passengers may board a plane with a potbellied pig if the animal is there to lend “emotional support.” The ruling was included in a manual published by the DOT in the Federal Register on July 5, “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel: Draft Technical Assistance Manual.” The manual states: “A passenger arrives at the gate accompanied by a potbellied pig. She claims that the potbellied pig is her service animal. What should you do? “Generally, you must permit a passenger with a disability to be accompanied by a service animal. However, if you have a reasonable basis for questioning whether the animal is a service animal, you may ask for some verification.” The manual defines a service animal as an “animal individually trained to perform functions to assist a person with a disability; animal that has been shown to have the innate ability to assist a person with a disability.” If the verification is satisfactory, potbellied pigs, which can weigh as much as 300 pounds, must be accepted aboard the plane. Wendy Ponzo, vice president of the North American Potbellied Pig Association, told CNS News that the pigs can be trained to open and close doors and use a litter box. “They also seem to have a sense if the owner is not feeling well to stay by them,” said Ponzo, who has multiple sclerosis. Miniature horses and monkeys can also qualify as service animals and be brought on a plane, according to the manual. But carriers can bar passengers from bringing aboard rodents, ferrets, spiders, snakes and other reptiles — not to mention snow globes, sporting goods, and liquids over three ounces. One more bureaucratic tidbit from the DOT: A carrier that declines to allow a passenger to bring an animal aboard a plane must document the decision in writing and provide it to the passenger within 10 days.
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