Pets outside of cages/kennels on planes?

Upvote:1

Air Canada allows this -- I've seen toy-sized dogs outside of cages temporarily, but they're usually still considered "as baggage" and highly doubt they'll be okay with them loose and away from the owner. I'm pretty sure you are still required to bring a cage/kennel and keep the pet inside the cage through most of the trip, but it could be possible that the cage/kennel could rest aside the adjoining seat and maybe the pet can be taken out of the cage for short periods of time, but they can't be "loose."

Note that I'm not sure of the policy -- just sharing my experience on an Air Canada flight last year.

Also, to add, lots of people go above and beyond and bend the rules anyways. It's beyond possible that someone in a stricter airline can take their dog/cat out of the cage and pet them/play with them for a few minutes and put them back without anyone noticing or caring -- it probably happens often too.

Also, if you pay for two seats this would probably be much easier to get away with if frowned upon.

Upvote:4

Some of the American carriers allow "emotional support animals" to roam freely around the cabin. I have only ever seen this on domestic flights within the United States.

It seems the criteria to meet to be an emotional support animal are not stringent and a sceptical man might guess that many people have success in illicitly registering their dogs as emotional support animals.

Upvote:6

Animals are treated the same as carry on baggage. They must be in their carriers (except for service dogs which travel under their own power) for take off and landing. Then once in flight they can be taken out of their carriers.

But roaming freely through the cabin would likely be frowned upon by most airlines and by most cabin attendants and most importantly by your fellow passengers. Pets are like children, their "parent" needs to supervise them and they should not be allowed to wander freely through the cabin. There may well be people amongst your fellow passengers that are allergic to animal dander, have a fear of dogs or just plain don't like dogs or cats.

As for after landing or before take off, that would be based on the policy of the airport as to whether pets can wander around out of their carriers. But if you are asking about the few moments after landing while on the airplane, letting you pet out in the airplane while people are disembarking is asking for injury to the animal by being stepped on or by someone dropping their too heavy carry on on the dog as they get it out of the bin.

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