Approximately 48 million people live with PTSD and/or Anxiety. These invisible illnesses make living life a challenge. An Emotional Support Animal (ESA) can help mitigate these challenges. Flights have long since made people nervous. Online statistics show that 2.5 to 6.5 percent of the population suffers from a fear of flying. This added to the PTSD and/or Anxiety can make flights almost a living hell for those of us challenged with PTSD and/or Anxiety. Our ESAs make flying less of a challenge than without and are greatly needed when facing the anxiety of flying. The other challenge to banning ESAs is many people like to visit family and cannot leave their ESA behind; especially if they are going to be staying a week or more with family.

What is an ESA? An ESA is an animal that has been prescribed by a doctor as needed to help mitigate symptoms of a disability such as PTSD or Anxiety. They are not allowed public access and are given housing exemptions as to not have to pay any fees associated with renting or leasing of housing. It is my hope that by creating this petition that we will be able to educate people on what an ESA is and remove some of the barriers created by people misusing the privilege of having an ESA.

I have hopes that if enough people realize that we need our prescription pets with us on flights that we can come to some kind of compromise with the airline companies to obtain some of our privileges back that were removed with this new ruling. Below are some ideas that many have decided were things they were willing to do in order to have their ESA on flights.

• Pay extra fees to allow ESAs to fly in the cabin. This could be the same fee charged for a pet or a different fee just for ESAs.
• Certificate of dog training courses, offered at Petco and many community colleges. This will help to mitigate many issues in public. For example, animals are less likely to defecate inside buildings or keep animals from causing a distraction when in the terminal. Proof of training is required.
• If an animal is too large for a carrier then the owner must purchase an extra seat.
• Animals in a carrier should stay in their carrier when in the cabin. No exceptions.
• Limit to dogs and cats only. Cats in carriers should be able to remain calm and quiet as to not disturb those on the flight. If a cat cannot remain quiet, many veterinarians can offer solutions to sedating your animal.
• Special vests for ESA to make them more easily identifiable and differentiate between Service Animals (SA) and ESA.

There is hope that by getting people to sign this petition that the major airline companies will take into consideration some of the suggestions that have been offered, or counter with their own suggestions for a compromise to this problem. Many people, me included, need their animals with them on their flights. To have an ESA means you have a disability, and an ESA is prescribed to mitigate the symptoms caused by this disability. In some ways the airlines are telling us that we cannot take our prescriptions with us, and discriminating against some disabilities but not all. Mental health is an invisible disability. It is not one that can be see, however, it can be debilitating at times.

It is our belief that if stricter regulations were imposed those that are abusing the ESA privilege will be less likely to continue to do so and those of us that need our ESA are still able to have them with us on flights.  If this petition gathers enough signatures it will allow us to have a collective voice instead of one lost amongst many. It is our hope that by signing this petition we may have a dialogue with the CEOs of airlines and are able to come to a better solution than a total ban.