"Emotional support animals... travel free, and restrictions on their size and species are left to the airlines’ discretion."

"They are not required to be caged. And unlike service animals, which undergo extensive training, they require no training."

Their task is to provide comfort to their companions. To serve the needs of the animals and their owners, a cottage industry of websites and doctors advertising documents that certify emotional support animals has emerged....

Carla Black, a psychotherapist in Marina del Rey, Calif., began receiving enough requests for emotional support animal certification that this year she began advertising on her website. For $99, she provides an hour of her time, over the phone or Skype, and a clinical assessment, along with a prescription letter, which is valid for one year.

Ms. Black said in a telephone interview that before she issues a letter she ensures the client is eligible under criteria set by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. “I make sure they qualify for depression or whatever, P.T.S.D.,” she said, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder.

I take it that must be covered by an Obamacare-compliant health plan, which must cover mental health.

One more reason to avoid getting on an airplane. I picture myself seated between the lady with a potbellied pig on her lap — his dripping snout overhanging the armrest — and the man who's having a breakdown because he's allergic to pigs.

Oh! They came for the dogs! This is going to hurt.

First, they came for the WWII veterans.

Now, they've come for the dogs.

From Therapy Dogs To New Patients, Federal Shutdown Hits NIH.

[P]atients were told therapy dogs will no longer be able to come to visit them.

"I had a little argument yesterday with a woman who wanted to bring her dog in at the restaurant by showing a card saying her dog is a 'service dog.'"

"As I always understood, a service dog is to help a disabled person, and usually the dog is a German Shepard trainee to help disabled people. But a fucking chihuahua can be a service dog? And on top, that bitch was not disabled. I told her that she is not disabled and that we could get fined by the Department of health by letting a dog in the establishment. She got angry saying that its illegal to ask someone if one is disabled. Still I told her we could get in trouble. Was my action right?"

Kids with peanut allergies now want $20,000 allergy service dogs to accompany them everywhere.

Allergy Alert dogs are "capable of sniffing out a single peanut in a pile of leaves."

Euthanizing a guide dog to bury it in the coffin with its blind owner.

You can have animals you own euthanized if you want, but when should you want it? According to the dead woman's son, the dog, Toffee, "wandered aimlessly" after the woman died.

"I wouldn't say that's unusual for a dog to be in mourning, especially if a dog is really close to a person," said [the veterinary assistant].

The perception that the dog is "in mourning" is subjective, and the subjective perception is arrived at by the family that has the power to do what it would probably only do if it conceived of the matter as putting the dog out of its misery.

Grand Valley State University pays $40,000 to settle lawsuit over a student's emotional-support guinea pig.

Even though the university had allowed the student — because of her depression — to keep the rodent in the otherwise pet-free dorm, the restriction on bringing it to classes and into the food-service places was, she argued, a failure to make reasonable accommodations.

If you're trying to decide what to complain about here, the salient fact is that the university settled. 

As for the psychological benefits of carrying a rodent to school, I think about the young Keith Richards:

For companionship I kept pets. I had a cat and a mouse, Gladys. I would bring her to school and have a chat in the French lesson when it got boring. I'd feed her my dinner and lunch, and I'd come home with a pocketful of mouse shit. Mouse shit doesn't matter. It comes out in hardened pellets, there's no pong involved, it's not squidgy or anything like that. You just empty you pockets and out come these pellets. Gladys was true and trusted. She very rarely poked her head out of the pocket and exposed herself to instant death.