U.S. Department of Transportation Seeks Comment on Proposed Amendments to Regulation of Service Animals on Flights

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020

 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation today announced that it is seeking public comment on proposed amendments to its Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) regulation on the transportation of service animals by air.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Traveling by Air with Service Animals can be found HERE and provides the public with 60 days to comment on the proposed changes.
Today’s NPRM is intended to ensure a safe and accessible air transportation system. It addresses concerns raised by individuals with disabilities, airlines, flight attendants, airports, other aviation transportation stakeholders, and other members of the public, regarding service animals on aircraft. The Department recognizes the integral role that service animals play in the lives of many individuals with disabilities and wants to ensure that individuals with disabilities can continue using their service animals while also reducing the likelihood that passengers wishing to travel with their pets on aircraft will be able to falsely claim their pets are service animals.
The NPRM proposes to:

• Define a service animal as a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability;
• No longer consider an emotional support animal to be a service animal;
• Consider a psychiatric service animal to be a service animal and require the same training and treatment of psychiatric service animals as other service animals;
• Allow airlines to require forms developed by DOT attesting to a service animal’s good behavior, certifying the service animal’s good health, and if taking a long flight attesting that the service animal has the ability to either not relieve itself, or can relieve itself in a sanitary manner;
• Allow airlines to require passengers with a disability who are traveling with a service animal to check-in at the airport one hour prior to the travel time required for the general public to ensure sufficient time to process the service animal documentation and observe the animal;
• Require airlines to promptly check-in passengers with service animals who are subject to an advanced check-in process;
• Allow airlines to limit the number of service animals traveling with a single passenger with a disability to two service animals;
• Allow airlines to require a service animal to fit within its handler’s foot space on the aircraft;
• Continue to allow airlines to require that service animals be harnessed, leashed, tethered, or otherwise under the control of its handler;
• Continue to allow airlines to refuse transportation to service animals that exhibit aggressive behavior and that pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others; and
• Continue to prohibit airlines from refusing to transport a service animal solely on the basis of breed.

Comments on the NPRM must be received within 60 days of the date the notice is published.  The NPRM can be found at regulations.gov, docket number DOT-OST-2018-0068.

WINS are few and far between. ENJOY!!!

(update from a reader. enjoy in deed.)

Remember the 4 maulers that were "Service maulers"?  

1- GONE. Got it kicked out for attacking another dog. See ya fuck face! Hope your mauler eats you POS. 

2- MOVING. Management now knows his papers are fake, and will NOT be renewing his contract when it comes up in 2 months. They promise if there is one more incident, and he is outta here even sooner. 

3 & 4 (same house)- Either GONE or in HIDING- The owner said "I know they wanna evict me!", which is true. A few complaints (one on video) got her a lease violation. I haven't seen the maulers one time since this, in over a month, and I can see their yard all the time. I think they are GONE.

Keep in mind, before I stepped up the campaign to get them out, and worked hard to make this place hostile to them, ALL of these owners paraded their maulers around, so proud of them. They took them on the playground, even though they knew others did not want them there. They let them play unleashed, and pee unleashed, everyday many times. They pooped all over, and were basically, nuisances. I felt scared, harassed, and threatened by them, all day long.

Now, NO MORE! The hostility and constant surveillance worked - they quit their mauler parade, even before they moved… 

I figured I was already stressed and threatened, might as well turn the tables. Whats the worse they can do? Attack me? Shoot me? I decided to take my chances. So, I complained and did not let up, and made sure everyone knew I was gonna get them evicted. I made sure every single person here knew I would KILL it, if it was loose, and that if the mauler hurt my kids, THE OWNER would be gutted next. Showed off my knives to make them know I meant it.

********Best of all, I contacted the company that sold the asshole in my building his fake papers. I let them know what he did with them, and that if anything happens  because he moved in here with those papers, it would be THEIR ASSES. They were nice enough to send me a little letter that clearly stated that those papers are not legal documents, and do NOT make a dog a service dog. I said- Thanks!!! **********

I gave that letter to the manager, and also gave him a list of all the web sites that sell those papers, and now NO ONE will be able to use this scam. Now, mauler #2 will not have his contract renewed, nor will anyone else using this scam.

Management hated this scam, but didn't know what to do. I handed them a solution. They only have to offer "reasonable accommodation" and it is NOT reasonable to have a pit bull in apartments where big dogs are banned. 

Sorry so long, but its important to know that people DO WIN sometimes, and how they did it. 

Thanks for the inspiration! (Really)

FYI- Here is the later I got back from the "National Service Dog Registry" after I sent them a nice little note about how their product was being used. This letter helped the landlord prove these papers didn't mean a thing. and a letter from the National Service Animal Registry.


Hi _______,

Thanks for checking with us. Because registration isn’t required by federal or state law, certificates, ID cards, etc. carry absolutely no legal weight, nor do they make someone disabled or their dog a service dog. They are only designed to make life easier for someone who is truly impaired. Housing for this person isn’t covered under the ADA, by the way, but under the Fair Housing Amendments Act, but only if he is legally disabled. Posing as disabled is a federal crime punishable by fine and/or imprisonment.

Our suggestion is that you make a formal complaint to the property manager. They are allowed by law to require the person’s physician to verify he is disabled. Even if his is disabled and his dog is trained as a service dog, a person and/or their animal may be evicted if the animal is a danger in public. You are not without rights!

I hope this helps,

Client Care Representative
Helping Animals Help People

National Service Animal Registry
www.nsarco.com
866-737-3930


success-in-the-war-on-fake-service-dogs-pit-bulls/

neighbor-of-ambully-apartment-defending-herself-personal-stories/
 

fake service dogs have been covered ad nauseam on craven and dogsbite.org and dogs in service.

Pit Bull Service Dogs: They're too sensitive but they still need prong collars 

so called service maulers and their owners

power posing

seventh pit bull attack on a service dog!

who will be austin tx next top nutter?

pit grifters put nigerians to shame

pit bulls do make good service dogs

stunt service pit bull on a train: good morning new york!

fully vetted pit nutters and their service dogs

fort worth pit bull owner steven woods, pegged as fraudulent

examples of conspicuous scheming

pit bulls and psychopaths

"Then came the excruciating rabies shots because they couldn't find the dog. I later learned from the Humane Society and the District Attorney that the owner hid the dog, and even denied that he owned a Pit Bull."

the rest of John Castle's nightmare is at dogsbite.org.

 

 













"Psychopaths show a stunning lack of concern for the devastating effects their actions have on others. Often they are completely forthright about the matter, calmly stating that they have no sense of guilt, [and] are not sorry for the pain and destruction they have caused, which is associated with a remarkable ability to rationalize their behavior." Dr Robert Hare

"They are frequently callous and hedonistic, showing marked emotional immaturity, with lack of responsibility, lack of judgement, and an ability to rationalize their behavior so that it appears warranted, reasonable, and justified." Dr Hervey Cleckley

see also The Truth About Pit Bull Owners

Who will be the Austin TX Next Top Nutter?

In Austin TX, nutters are battling other nutters to outnutter each other in order to become Austin's top nutter.

Austin Animal Control is completely pit bull centric and has recently gone No Kill in a very big way.  Austin spent $12 million on a new, state-of-the-art animal control facility and is paying Austin Pets Alive!, a No Kill shelter, to run their shelter out of the old facility and take "overflow" from the city Animal Control.  Austin has become the largest no-kill city in the US.  They claim a 91% save rate. Yay!

The architects of the brand new No Kill Animal Services have broken down the kinds of pets they receive and try to adopt out, and they have found that 10% of those dogs are "large breed dogs with behavioral issues."  And they are determined to adopt more of these dogs out by sending them to Austin Pets Alive as their "overflow" where they have rehabilitation teams to deal with the "behavior issues."

"Ten percent of the animals on the euthanasia list was made up of large breed dogs with behavior problems. These dogs are the most expensive in terms of dollars, time, and expertise."  As a result of a concerted effort to adopt "large breed dogs with behavior problems," more of these dogs have been adopted out into the Austin community than ever before with plans to increase that number in the future:

"More and more of Austin's adult large breed dogs with behavior issues are adopted each year because of improved customer service, pet-matching practices, and behavior modification. That number is expected to increase as funds are raised to put facilities and expertise for handling those animals into place."

Just so we're all on the same page, take a look at the large breed dogs that are up for adoption at Austin Pets Alive!  These are the ones that will also have behavior issues.

Yep.  "Large breed dogs" is code for "pit bull."  And "behavior issues" is code for "traits that dogfighters bred for when they developed fighting pit bull dogs."

Just as an aside, why, when they have correctly IDed so many pit bulls, do they insist on calling a few pit bulls  pointer mixes?  Old habits?  They just can't help themselves?  It just feels so good to lie?  Maybe so when these dogs end up on the Austin "dangerous dog" map, they'll show up as pointers and german shepherds?  The following photos will help you visualize the pointer mix and the shepherd mix that are already on the map.

Trooper - pointer/German short hair pointer/boerboel mix(!),  Tyrone and Yeti - pointer mixes

Bo Jangles - catahoula leopard dog mix,  Posie - boxer mix,  Dallas - German shepherd mix

Dogsbite.org looked into Austin's dog bite records and discovered, unsurprisingly, that Austin Animal Services' new No Kill success adopting out "large breed dogs with behavior issues," coincided exactly with a 35% surge in reported dog bites.  Also, predictably, the most infamous "large breed with behavior issue" dog of all time, the pit bull, led the bite count, accounting for 22% of bites even though it represents 10% of the registered dog population.

Also unsurprising, Austin Animal Services attempted to create a deceptive report to rebut dogbite.org's findings.  Dogsbite.org sent a follow-up to the Austin City council, and this is how AAS's report was received by the Austin City Council:

Commissioner Rossmo - I've done my best to look at the data that was sent to us from Austin Animal Services…I would just have to say I wanted to warn other commissioners that…this is a very poor report…they have no idea how to do a trend line…bottom line is the relevant issue is what has happened since 2009.  Going back to 2000 only washes out data.  I just pulled some of my own figures off of my Iphone and the bottom line is Travis county's population went up 3.6% since 2009 and the number of bites went up 35% which is a 30% per capita rate which is quite significant…I'm very, very disappointed in this report which I think was designed to confuse - not help us make a proper decision…so I would urge you all to be very careful in looking at the report…

You couldn't find a more pit bull lovin' & promotin' organization than Austin Animal Services and their little buddy Austin Pets Alive! You'd also be hard pressed to find another organization so audaciously and brazenly contemptuous of the hand that feeds it. It takes major balls to take tax payers' money for the stated purpose of adopting out more large dogs with behavior problems back into those tax payers' neighborhoods, dismiss and deny an escalating dog bite problem in their community, try to deceive those tax payers, and then ask for more money from those same tax payers so they can achieve their stated goal of adopting out even more of those large breed dogs with behavior problems to their neighbors.  Conclusion: These are super nutters.

Who could outnutter that?  This guy:

CHRISTOPHER JOSEPH GRANT owner of first four and then three sibling pit bulls, two of which he claims were service dogs complete with scam service dog registry and dressed in service dog patches.

Leo, Dawn and Gorgo

CHRISTOPHER 'handicapable' GRANT has trained his own dogs, including the two service pits himself.  Look at these training videos.  First, as a responsible owner, he builds a very high fence.  And then he trains his dogs to scale it.


And in this one, he teaches his service dogs to pull him around on a bike.


One day, he was training his dogs in a parking lot which he had ever so responsibly marked off with cones to indicate this was HIS piece of parking lot. Notice he cobbles together various signs to make it look as if he has a right to do this and cannot legally be disturbed.

And then, while he was ever so responsibly training his leashed pit bulls an unleashed, elderly, vicious lab mix launched a protracted attack on all three of his pit bulls.  And the lab's owner, instead of trying to stop his vicious lab, pulled one of his pit bulls away and began viciously hitting and kicking it for no reason.

Someone called 911, but the evil first responders ignored CHRISTOPHER 'i've-fallen-and-i-can't-get-up' GRANT who was lying on the ground with a lab bite having an asthma attack and screaming that he was having a heart attack just because people are prejudiced against pit bull owners, and went to treat the owner of the lab mix.

When Austin Animal Services came, they unjustly took his service dogs from him because they were pit bulls, but they did not take the attacking lab to put it in quarantine.  They just let it go!

Finally, with no evidence, the judge ordered the execution of three "well-trained, happy and peaceful family pets."  (In Texas, a judge can order vicious dogs be put down, and there is no clear avenue for an owner to appeal that order.)

I kid.  that is just the lie CHRISTOPHER 'despicable me' GRANT told.  And once he told that lie, bloggers blogged (including CINDY "the ladder" MARABITO), commenters commented, and petitioners petitioned all over the Nutter Universe.  And those super nutter folks at Austin Animal Services were catching hell for hating pits. Oh the irony.  Nutter Universe went batshit crazy and sent hundreds of death threats to AAS, the judge who ordered the mutants be put down, and the victim (of course) prompting Austin PD to increase patrols at the shelter and launch an investigation.

The pit loving' and promotin' AAS  issued statements explaining that the story that CHRISTOPHER 'pants on fire' GRANT told on the internet was a complete lie and that CHRISTOPHER 'shit for brains' GRANT had recanted most of the story when he went to court and spoke before the judge. AAS explained that the pit bulls were very, very, very aggressive and they and their owner had been very, very, very naughty all the while distancing themselves from the actual decision to euthanize the pitties.

The truth is the elderly lab mix was walking off lead, but under control of the owner and right beside his owner when CHRIS "evil-but-no-genius" GRANT's mutants, which were off lead, surrounded the elderly lab and launched a protracted and "coordinated attack." The lab's hind leg was degloved which ultimately necessitated amputation.

Please read both AAS statements here and here and prepare to be enraged.

Nutter Universe stopped sending death threats, probably because they'd heard the police were investigating, but continued to insist everyone but the pit bull owner was lying and continued to type "Oh, the poor babies" ad nauseum on the dead pit bulls' SAVE THEM facebook page.  Blog posts with titles such as "Austin murders three harmless pit bulls" are still up gathering traffic for the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs website even though it turns out that these service pit bulls had launched a serious attack before attacking the lab in Austin.

Yes, keeping in mind the despicable lies the detestable CHRIS 'evil moron' GRANT told, and keeping in mind that he had his frankenmaulers OFF LEAD in public and keeping in mind that he had stuck service dog patches all over their harnesses, and keeping in mind his lie about the lab mix attacking his pit bulls, try to comprehend that CHRIS 'i-need-to-be-castrated-with-a-butter-knife" GRANT did all this after his pit bulls had viciously attacked another lab and put the lab's owner in the hospital having done serious damage to her ear less than a year before.  Yep.  Brooke Stewart is in the process of suing CHRIS 'garnish-my-wages-for-life' GRANT. Wish her well.

Can anyone outnutter that?

Yep, this guy:

State Representative EDDIE RODRIGUEZ, D-Austin (District 51)

State Rep. EDDIE RODRIGUEZ read about CHRIS 'evil moron' GRANT's story and said to himself, "That's terrible…that guy got no chance to appeal the judge's order to have those mauling pit bulls euthanized."  Really.  That was was his take away from this horror show.

He could have looked at the carnage CHRIS 'walking clusterfuck' GRANT has wrought and publicly demanded that the full force of Lillian's law be brought to bear with certain jail time.  He could have decided to file a bill that penalizes people for fraudulently claiming their pets are service dogs.  He could have decided to file a bill that requires liability insurance on pit bulls and requires mandatory spay and neuter for pit bulls.  Instead, after reading this case, RODRIGUEZ is now set to file a bill that will make sure that the next CHRIS GRANT will be allowed to force the City of Austin to spend tax-payer money to fight an appeal to keep the mauling pit bulls in their neighborhood.

That takes a lot of nerve - this guy is elected, and he doesn't seem to care that he's allying himself with this guy:

Instead of defending the rights of the Austin voter who now has a three legged dog thanks to CHRIS GRANT:

It might be because EDDIE RODRIGUEZ is a founding board member for Austin Pets Alive!, the rescue whose stated goal is to adopt more large dogs with behavior problems into the community.  And it could be that he believes that no matter what he does, he's got the votes.  After all, in 2010 he was handily re-elected despite having been arrested for DWI a few months before the election.  Surprisingly, the charges were dropped after he spent the night in jail.

Contact RODRIGUEZ:
State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez facebook page

Maddie's Fund
Austin American Statesman No-kill animal shelter increases deaths
City of Austin September 4, 2012 Public Safety Commission
Austin American Statesman Despite recent convictions for dog attacks
Lawsuit against Christopher Grant  (search for case no. 11-2082-CC4)
Austin Animal Services public statement
Social media uproar regarding pit bulls
Austin Animal Services receives death threats over euthanized dogs
APD investigating pit bull deaths following threats to animal shelter, court