Department of Transportation Rejects Delta Airlines' Ban on Pit Bulls as Service Animals

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Over a year after Delta Airlinesbanned pit bull-type dogs from traveling as service or support animalson their flights, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) instructed airlines that they must allow any breed of service dog on board.

The DOT announced the news ina releaseon Thursday, explaining that “dogs as a species are accepted for transport.”

“The Department’s Enforcement Office views a limitation based exclusively on breed of the service animal to not be allowed under its service animal regulation,” the DOT wrote.

The DOT added that airlines are still “permitted to find that any specific animal, regardless of breed, poses a direct threat.”

In addition to banning pit bull-type dogs, Delta also announced that passengers would be limited to oneemotional support animal (ESA) per passenger.

The DOT addressed the limitation in its release on Thursday, explaining that “the Department’s disability regulation is not clear as to how many service animals may travel with a passenger with a disability.”

“Enforcement efforts will generally focus on ensuring that airlines are not restricting passengers from traveling with one ESA and a total of three service animals if needed,” the release said. “Generally, one ESA should be sufficient for emotional support, but a passenger may reasonably need more than one task-trained service animal.”

Therules on emotional support animals vary between airlines, though many airlines, including Delta, only accept cats, dogs and miniature horses over the age of 4 months as ESAs.

source: people.com