Emotional support animals posing problems for airlines
Airline lobby group releases statement about problems posed by animals on flights; Raymond Arroyo shares 'Friday follies' on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
Cindy Torok, the woman who was removed from a Frontier Airlines flight over her emotional support squirrel, says she’s planning to take legal action after Tuesday’s incident.
“I will own a big portion of this airline,” Torok told Fox 8 Cleveland. “I’m going for blood.”
Torok was removed from Tuesday’s Frontier flight by police after allegedly being told by the flight crew that her pet squirrel, Daisy, was not allowed onboard.
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Torok claims she brought a doctor’s note and her daughter reached out to Frontier prior to the flight, in order to ensure she would be able to travel with Daisy. Torok also noted that she made it through TSA checkpoints prior to the flight with no problem — but according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the airlines are each responsible for determining which support animals are allowed.
Frontier, however, stated Tuesday that Torok only noted in her reservation that she would be boarding with an emotional support animal and did not indicate that it would be a squirrel, which is not allowed onboard, per a statement obtained by Fox 8.
"They said, 'Either you walk off the plane or I'm going to arrest you for trespassing, and we will take that squirrel,'" Torok told Fox 8 of the Frontier staff on the flight.
"I said, 'You're not taking my squirrel. Sorry, you're not. I refuse. You will not take my baby from me.'"
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The entire plane deboarded, and police then removed Torok from the flight, which was delayed two hours due to the incident.
Frontier reimbursed Torok and issued a voucher for future travel, but that hasn’t changed her mind about taking legal action.
“I am going all the way. I am contacting an attorney.”
Torok is far from the first passenger to run into problems with her emotional support animals. In January, a woman was denied her emotional support peacock on a United Airlines flight, on the grounds that it “did not meet the guidelines” of a support animal.
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A September survey of flight attendants also reported that 61 percent of the staff had witnessed an emotional support animal causing a disturbance midflight.