U.S. lays out enforcement priorities for animals on planes

The government is telling airlines and passengers how it will enforce rules governing animals that people bring on planes.

The Transportation Department said Thursday that airline employees can bar any animal they consider a safety threat. Airlines, however, can be punished if they ban an entire dog or cat breed, such as pit bulls.

The department’s enforcement office said that it doesn’t plan to stop airlines fromasking passengers “reasonable” questions about a service animal’s vaccinations, training and behavior. Airlines can require advance notice if passengers plan to bring an emotional support animal— several already do — but can’t impose the same requirement for service animals such as guide dogs for the blind.

The number of animals on planes rose rapidly in recent years as more people began bringing a companion for emotional support. Most flying pets are tame, but there have been some well-publicized instances of animals biting passengers or airline employees and other reports of animals relieving themselves in the cabin.

An American Eagle flight attendant needed stitches after a passenger’s dog bit him on the hand during a flight last month. Theman’s union, the Association of Flight Attendants, called the enforcement policy an important step to deal with a “mess of animals loose in the aircraft cabin.”

The Transportation Department plans to publish the guidelines next week, and airlines will have 30 days after that to conform their rules with the federal policy.

Delta Air Lines could face pressure to change two of its rules: A ban on pit bulls in the cabin, and a ban against emotional support animals on flights longer than eight hours. United Airlines also bans comfort animals on long flights. The department said airlines can make passengers demonstrate before a long flight that their animal can relieve itself in a sanitary way.

A Delta spokeswoman said the airline was still reviewing the Transportation Department’s guidance.

The Transportation Department endorsed many other rules that airlines have adopted, such as barring extremely young animals and exotic ones including snakes from the cabin.

Airlines are not required to report how many animals they carry, but some do. Delta said Thursday that it carried 245,000 service and support animals last year, about the same as 2017, up from around 100,000 in 2015. United’s most recent figure, 76,000 for support animals only in 2017, was a 77% increase from the year before.

Airlines for America, a tradegroupofmajorU.S. airlines other than Delta, and the flight attendants’ union blamed the large numbers on passengers who fraudulently claim they need an emotional support animal to fly. Airlines must waive pet fees for comfort animals if the owner has a doctor’s note vouching for their need to have the animal companion

he priorities announced Thursday could serve as a warm-up for new regulations that the department hopes to enact by next summer. On a call with reporters, a senior department official declined to say what might be in those rules.

Belgian park trumpets arrival of twinbaby pandas

BRUGELETTE, BELGIUM (AP) >> A Belgian wildlife park is proudly announcing the birth of twin baby giant pandas.

Pairi Daiza said in a tweet Friday that Hao Hao, a panda loaned to the park by China in 2014, has given birth to “two little ‘ pink shrimps’ that are in good health and that she is takIn this April 1, 2017, file photo, a service dog strolls through the isle inside a United Airlines plane at Newark Liberty International Airport while taking part in a training exercise in Newark, N.J. The government is telling airlines and passengers how it will enforce rules governing animals that people bring on planes. ing care of with extraordinary maternal love.”

The twins were born Thursday, the 8th day of the 8th month, and the park notes that the number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese culture.

They’re the second and third pandas delivered at the park, following the birth of Tian Bao in June 2016.

Pairi Daiza head Eric Domb says it is “marvelous news for this extraordinary, but today still threatened, species.”

Bear falls onNorthern California patrol car

HOOPA, CALIF. (AP) >> They probably don’t train people for this at the Sheriff’s Academy.

A patrol car was struck by a falling bear in Northern California last weekend.

Authorities say a Humboldt County sheriff’s deputy was driving on State Route 96 on Aug. 3, answering a report of a drug overdose in the community of Orleans, when the bear fell or jumped onto the car, apparently from a steep embankment.

The bear smashed the hood and windshield. The patrol car hit an embankment, rolled onto its side and burst into flames.

The deputy managed to escape without serious injury.

The fire was contained to about half an acre but the This Aug. 3photo from the Hoopa Fire Department shows a Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department patrol car after it was struck by a falling bear and then hit an embankment, rolled onto its side and burst into flames, near Hoopa, Calif., in Northern California. The deputy managed to escape without serious injury. car was gutted.

However, the California Department of Transportation stated: “Don’tworry, the bear also fled the scene.”

NewOrleans council votes to restrict Airbnb-style rentals

NEW ORLEANS (AP) >> Responding to residents who say short-term rentals such as those arranged by Airbnb are driving up property taxes and steadily denigrating the character of historic neighborhoods, the New Orleans City Council voted Thursday to impose broad new restrictions on such rentals.

The 7- 0 vote bans the short-term rentals of whole houses not occupied by the owners. It also puts limits on the number of shortterm rentals on commercial properties and bans all short-termrentals inmost of the historic French Quarter and the Garden District.

The newrestrictionswere months in the making and were largely met with support among thosewho spoke at the hearing. Applause broke out in the council chamber when the vote was taken.

College professor Helen Regis said her neighborhood near popular entertainment areas has been harmed by the proliferation of shortterm rentals. “I have lost a lot of neighbors in the last few years,” she told council members prior to the vote. But therewere opponents. Eric Bay, a city resident who manages short-term rentals, said the council was bowing to a “well-funded hotel lobby” and wrongfully taking away property rights.

“While this vote provides much needed regulatory certainty for home sharing in New Orleans, the rules unfairly punish responsible short-term rental hosts who are contributing to the local economy,” Laura Spanjian, of Airbnb, said in an emailed statement.

And Expedia Group, parent company of vacation rental platforms Vrbo and HomeAway, issued a statement in which spokesman Philip Minardi called the move “shortsighted.”

Also included in the package approved Thursday are fee schedules and requirements that online platforms calculate and collect taxes and fees.

The regulations will still allow homeowners to rent out part of their residences they occupy to short-term visitors. A person who owns multiple units on one property also could get shortterm rental permits — if the person lives on the property.

The work isn’t done. Council members and residents said methods of beefing up enforcement will be needed. Andreanecia Morris of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance said she was concerned that, absent strong enforcement, many investors in shorttermrental property will ignore the restrictions. “They are just going to go underground and stay underground,” she said.