That’s the DOJ’s interpretation of the ADA though. Airlines must instead follow the Air Carrier Access Act, a different law that predates the ADA and has somewhat different requirements.

My cats stay in the carriers for the whole flight, but maybe I should find a doctor who could sign a piece of paper that it is important to my mental well being during the flight to be able to scratch the head of a Marine Coon cat. They are known to be quite human dependent and they bond quite easily with their supporting staff members.

Agreed. I fly about once a week and find that airlines are fearful of enforcing reasonable polices when a passenger claims a disability.

– They are very reluctant to de-plane a passenger who takes more than one seat.

– They take the word of any passenger who requests early boarding, and allow an entire family of a dozen people to board along, too.

– They’ll tell *everyone* on the plane not to eat anything with nuts in it because some kid in row 25 claims to have a peanut allergy. (If she were that sensitive, she would have died walking through the airport.)

Then there’s also 14 CFR 91.3–
§ 91.3 Responsibility and authority of the pilot in command.

(a) The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft.

Who has the final say under these sometimes contradictory regulations? I’d say the pilot in command.

That wouldn’t surprise me…of course, I was referring to rights of service animal owners under NY law.

ADA common law tends to be a wild and wooly area, perhaps because of the distance between the voters and the interpreters (federal judges and departmental employees) of federal law. It’s not like you can vote a federal judge out of office.

I did a little research in the federal service/support animal area recently…some of the more fun cases involved animals such as a sugar glider (a kind of Australian flying squirrel); a monkey which aided its owner by baring its teeth at people who approached her; another woman (almost always women…why?) who went everywhere pushing a stroller with four (!) little monkeys dressed in pirate costumes; and a man who wanted to attended music concerts with his dog, who aided him by barking gently.

So imagine yourself at the concert…the music is soothing, perhaps something by Debussy….the monkey is baring its teeth at you, the dog is gently barking, the four pirate monkeys are brandishing their little swords, and the sugar glider is flying around over the heads of the orchestra.
Welcome to the 21st century.

Read the US department of justice’s own position. https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm

Only dogs.
Only when trained to do work or perform specific tasks.

Providing comfort by their presence is not a specific task.

Sorry, but the federal ADA trumps Both New York and Nevada state law on this issue and the Federal courts have ruled that other types of animals must be accepted as service animals if properly certified.