Does our society give too much leeway to people with companion pets?

I don’t know about where you live, but here in Illinois, USA, only service animals are allowed in those places.

@anniereborn There have been many cases of “emotional support” animals being allowed onto airplanes. And these are limited to just dogs. There have been stories of dogs, cats, a pig, a duck, a turkey, a monkey, lizards, and even a miniature horse all being allowed on as “emotional support” for the owner. This seems to mean it doesn’t matter if that emotional support causes others emotional distress or not.

Society gives too much leeway to people with small children.
They should be banned from restaurants and public transport.

I think it comes down to the choice of companion pets. My companion pet skunk seems to bring me much more “leeway” than my 5’ albino boa constrictor.

I think it’s a bit ridiculous, yes. My friend got his dog labeled “emotional support animal” so he could pay less on rent and bring the dog anywhere. He bought a harness for it that says “service dog” which is just an outright lie (ESA and service dog are not the same thing as I understand it) but no one questions it so he gets away with bringing it just about anywhere.

I saw a woman in a grocery store carrying her dog around.I don’t love the idea of that.
There is also a mall that allows dogs in the stores.I think that is a great idea as one can buy items “pre-peed”.
I told my therapy moose to disguise herself as my mother in law so there are ways around this.

@ragingloli Agreed. I can’t stand when people let their kids run around stores unsupervised. I will trip kids if they run past me more than 2x.

I think that pet owners should be able to register their pets as family members.
Calling your dog your “son”, should no longer be a mere affectation, but an official recognition.

I’d rather people call their dog their son than say “fur baby”.

Yes. Just take a look at trump having a white nationalist pet at the WH named Stephen.

I was in Home Depot last night, in CT, and someone had a long haired Chihuahua in the shopping cart. The little thing was snarling and barking. It was kind of amusing but good thing it wasn’t on the floor, as it may have taken a chunk out of someone’s ankle.

Any support animal needs to be licensed as such. Currently, people can just buy a vest from Amazon and feel like that gives them the right to take a pet anywhere.

Oh, I don’t really care, unless their companion pet bites someone.

My nose freaks out around perfume/scented deodorants.

I can’t even remember the last time I saw a “emotional support animal” (which I assume this is about).

Feel free to ban the rare animals if that means you can also ban the entirely all to common people that shower in perfume.

What does perfume have to do with support animals?

@Dutchess_III

Allergies. Many people very sensitive to perfumes (they can trigger severe headaches in me personally), and some folks are flat-out allergic to them. But no one really seems to bat an eye when someone goes out in public doused in enough fragrance to single-handedly keep Estee Lauder in business.

@Dutchess_III Also, the perfume speaks to the insensitivity of someone to those around them. All they are looking at is what they want, not how others might be impacted.

And yes, while I understand full and well the emotional support pets can give to folks, some people just carry it too far. There are times when you’ve just got to be a big boy/girl and face the world on your own.

My daughter used smell like she took a bath in Petule oil. It was too much, even for me. Someone must have said something at work cause she finally quit doing it.

I think that some people who wear very heavy amounts of fragrance are just clueless about how strong it smells. Perhaps they’re older people whose sense of smell has diminished, and so they don’t realize that they’re doused in it. There are a few people I can think of who wear so much fragrance, you can smell them before you see them.

I once stopped to get gas and when I got back in my car I smelled a reek of perfume/cologne. I was confused as I hadn’t noticed it before. I smelled my hand that had handled the gas pump and it reeked. Some twit put it on so thick it transferred to the gas pump nozzle and overcame the smell of gasoline.