Delta bans pit bull service dogs, but legality questioned

Amid growing scrutiny of animals in airplane cabins, several airlines have unveiled tightened policies aimed at limiting the number of untrained pets or unusual species on flights. The changes, they have said, are driven by safety considerations and intended to ensure that service or emotional-support animals are traveling only with passengers who have disabilities.

Delta went further last week, announcing that it would prohibit all “pit bulltype dogs” as service or support animals, in a move it called “the direct result of growing safety concerns following recent incidents in which several employees were bitten.” The airline told the Associated Press Friday that two employees were bitten by a pit bull traveling as an emotional-support animal last week.

But the announcement faced swift backlash from advocates for pit bulls, as well as from some service dog organizations and disability advocates who said they believe the Delta ban runs afoul of federal laws.

“First and foremost, it’s about people. Delta is discriminating against people,” said Regina Lizik of the Animal Farm Foundation in New York, which trains shelter dogs that have been labeled pit bulls to be service dogs for people with disabilities. “When Delta or anyone puts out a regulation like this that dictates what kind of dog can be a service dog, they are reducing access for someone with a disability.”

The Department of Transportation also cast doubt on the legality of the policy on Friday evening, saying in a statement that “a limitation based exclusively on breed of the service animal is not allowed under the Department’s Air Carrier Access Act regulation.”

Service animals are trained to perform specific tasks for people with disabilities, and they enjoy broad access to public places and transportation on the ground, where the Americans With Disabilities Act applies; emotional-support animals, which are not necessarily trained, do not. The Justice Department, which enforces the ADA, has said that municipalities’ breedspecific bans — such as one in Miami-Dade County that prohibits pit bulls — do not apply to service animals of those breeds.

Airlines, however, are subject to the Air Carrier Access Act, which allows both service animals and emotional-support animals to fly free in the cabin but also gives carriers the right to turn away unusual service animals, such as snakes, or animals that pose “a direct threat to the health or safety of others.”