Sarah Jacobs

Sarah Jacobs

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You can now bring your service horse on a plane

If you thought people claiming to have service dogs on planes was getting out of hand, wait until you hear the new rules on service animals. It seems the U.S. Department of Transportation has chimed in as to what animals are acceptable to bring on planes as service animals.

“With respect to animal species, we indicated that we would focus our enforcement efforts on ensuring that the most commonly used service animals (dogs, cats, and miniature horses) are accepted for transport as service animals,” the department said in a statement.

Wait, miniature horses?!? You read that right.

Seems that miniature horses are also known to make great service animals. They can live as long as 35 years, generally, stand about 2 to 3 feet tall and weigh around 100 pounds when fully grown.

The statement also clarifies that animals outside of dogs, cats and miniature horses must be accepted or denied flight on a case-by-case basis.

Airlines will face fines if they don't abide by these new guidelines. 

Before you fill my inbox with nastygrams, I'm 100% fully supportive of ACTUAL service animals being allowed to go anywhere their owner goes. But the idea of a miniature horse on a plane is pretty hard to wrap my head around. Can they be potty trained? What special accommodations do the airlines need to make for mini horses on flights? I just think it could get out of hand in pretty short order.

If you have experience with a service horse that's been allowed on a plane, I'd love to know about it. I'm open to being educated on this.

Here's a photo of a miniature horse on a plane. Doesn't this poor animal look horribly uncomfortable crammed into such a small space without freedom to move/stretch/lie down?


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