Southwest Flight Disrupted When 'Emotional Support' Dog Bites Kid

PHOENIX, AZ – A Southwest Airlines flight from Phoenix to Portland was delayed by about 20 minutes Wednesday night when a little girl tried to pet a so-called "emotional support" dog and ended up with a mark on her forehead. The dog and its owner were removed from the flight.

The child – a 6-year-old girl – continued on the flight after being treated by paramedics.

A man who took a photo of the dog and tweeted about the incident before apparently deleting his tweets said that the girl had gone to pet the dog when it bit her.

Southwest said the dog's teeth "scraped" the child, but the dog did not bite her.

A nationwide debate has evolved over the need for a crackdown on "emotional support" animals, as opposed to service animals.

Arizona state Sen. John Kavanagh is introducing legislation that attempts to bring some order to the issue of service animals. If he is successful, Arizona will become the 20th state to pass such a law. Massachusetts is also considering similar legislation.

"Let me make this clear," he told Patch. "I am not trying to stop people from having service animals. I just want to make sure that a service animal does provide a service and that people who pass off a pet as a service animal can be punished

"People need to know that just because you go on the internet, buy a vest that says 'service animal' and put it on your parrot doesn't make it a service animal."

Kavanagh and others want to draw the line between service animals that perform specific, necessary tasks and therapy dogs and other animals that people just want to have around with them for emotional support and comfort.

"It's really a health issue," Kavanagh said. "People are bringing all sorts of animals into places they have no business being. Restaurants, airplanes, buses should be open to real service animals.

"But it's being abused and a line has to be drawn."

Currently, 19 states and the federal government have laws prohibiting people from claiming untrained pets are trained service animals.

In most cases, they make it clear that by "trained," the animal has to be able to do more than sit and lie down.

Those states are California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.

"Colorado became the 19th earlier this year," Kavanagh said. "I would like to make Arizona the 20th."

Kavanagh's bill would allow a judge to impose a fine of $250 if people pass off a pet as a service dog.

The American with Disabilities Act says that "if the dog's mere presence provides comfort," it's not enough.

The act defines a service animal as one that performs specific tasks for a person, such detecting low blood sugar or an oncoming seizure.

The definition also includes animals that have been trained to help a person suffering an anxiety attack and someone with post-traumatic stress disorder. Those animals are considered service dogs and Kavanagh is clear that he is not doing anything that would affect those animals.

"This isn't about the people who need help," Kavanagh said. "It's about the people claiming their chihuahuas – even though they're running around nipping and barking – are actually service dogs. People who say having their animal around makes them feel better.

"Those people and their pets make it hard on the people who really need them."

Kavanagh says that the ease of going on the internet and ordering a vest that says "service dog" has made the situation worse. A search on Amazon for "service dog vest" under pet supplies comes up with 6,481 results.

"Animals that are labeled service dogs but aren't can cause serious issues for real service dogs," Kavanagh said. "These animals need to focus on the job at hand.

"Animals that are merely pets will cause disturbances, get into fights with other animals."

There have been cases of people's pets with service dog vests getting into fights and biting other dogs.

It's a problem that American Humane is working on by developing a series of concrete standards that a service dog trained for issues such as PTSD must meet.

American Humane CEO Dr. Robin Ganzert says the organization "was compelled to provide help and healing, and created a nationwide model based on our development of the country's first national training standards to help ensure veterans an adequate quantity as well as quality of lifesaving service dogs."

Kavanagh says that he knows that bill won't necessarily change a lot of behavior.

Under federal law, people confronting someone with a "service dog" are only allowed to ask two questions: Is your animal a service animal that's required for your disability and what task or work has your service animal been trained to do?

"I know that federal agents don't have a lot of time to run around checking if service chihuahuas really are service animals," said Kavanagh, who was a detective with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey before retiring, moving to Arizona, and getting elected to the legislature. "My hope is that if we pass the law, people will pay attention.

"I think people are basically law-abiding and want to do the right thing."

The law was expected to be debated in the current session.

"There are a lot of ways for the bill to be held up," Kavanagh said. "I'm hopeful this will pass."

File photo via Tom Bell/AP Photo