No Flying Squirrels Says Frontier Airlines
You can't even make this stuff up. And truly, is it not ironic, that an airline called Frontier, who features cartoon depictions of woodland characters on the tails of their planes, would not let a passenger bring their.....wait for it...."emotional support squirrel" on a flight from Orlando to Cleveland this past week?!
I have so many questions! The first one being WHAT IN THE WORLD IS AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT SQUIRREL? Or an emotional support animal of any kind? Is that not the same thing as a pet? My cats and dog offer me emotional support. But they are not expertly trained support animals. Heck, my dang cats can't even do their jobs as cats most of the time! How does one go about getting a support squirrel?! I'm so intrigued!
Who in their right mind would take a squirrel into an airplane!? Can you imagine if that little buddy had gotten loose in the baggage compartment?! You think getting them out of your attic is a pain!?
Essentially, this woman called the airline and warned them she'd be bringing a support animal, but failed to mention is was built more like Rocky (without Bullwinkle) than a seeing eye dog. As it is against Frontier's policy to allow rodents on flights, when someone noticed she had a squirrel in her carrier, the flight attendants asked her to get off the plane. She refused and was ultimately led off the plane by security. But not before the ENTIRE REST OF THE PLANE had to get off the aircraft first. There's video out there of the passengers actually cheering and clapping as she's being removed. Can't say I'd blame them. If I had to deplane, due to an emotional support squirrel, I'd have been irritated, too!
For the record, the airline will allow legitimate service animals if they are cats, dogs or mini-horses (WHAT?!) But their policy on emotional support animals is that they can only be of the feline or hound persuasion.
To quote my friend Ed, "It's all fun and games until somebody shows up with their emotional support hawk!"