Science Vs - Pets on Planes: Are Emotional Support Animals Legit?

Episode Date: April 4, 2019

Can petting Fluffy or Fido help with anxiety on planes? Or are emotional support animals a load of croc? We talk to psychologist Prof. Hal Herzog to find out if science has anything to say on whether these pets should fly high or be grounded. Check out the full transcript here: http://bit.ly/2MD2lPC Selected references: Hal’s critical review on whether pets can improve mental health Study showing that blankets worked just as well as dogs to reduce anxiety in childrenHere’s a good article describing the differences between emotional support animals and service animals A couple reviews on the evidence that animal-assisted therapy can help with psychiatric illnesses Credits: This episode was produced by Meryl Horn, with help from Wendy Zukerman, Rose Rimler, and Michelle Dang. Our senior producer is Kaitlyn Sawrey. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Diane Kelly and Michelle Dang. Mix and sound design by Peter Leonard. Music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to all the researchers we got in touch with for this episode, including Molly Crossman, Dr. Karen Thodberg, Cassie Boness, Dr. Rob Young, and Dr. Helen Louise Brooks. Also thanks to the Zukerman Family, and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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These days, it's starting to feel like aeroplanes are going to the dogs. People with anxiety and depression are bringing their pets on board because they say they need them for emotional support during flights. And it's happening more and more often. American Airlines says that in 2017, they allowed more than 150,000 animals for emotional support to fly on their planes.

That's 50,000 more animals than the previous year. Meanwhile, the animals people are using for emotional support are getting quite unconventional. It's not just dog and cats. Owners are now getting emotional support from a range of animals. Pig, monkey, turkey, duck, kangaroo, and now a peacock tried to take flight too. On one port, you have people saying that they really need their fur baby on the plane.

Cindy Torek and her emotional support squirrel, Daisy, boarded the Frontier Airlines flight. They told me I had to get off of the plane, that they do not accept rodents. How was that flight, flying without Daisy, your squirrel? It was emotional. On the other paw, these animals are ruffling a lot of feathers. I mean, these dogs are crapping all over the place

and even biting other passengers. A lot of people are looking at this situation and saying, what a crock. So on today's mini episode, we're going to find out, is this a load of crock? Or are these animals really helping people out on their flights? Emotional support animals aren't like guide dogs. They haven't been trained for a specific purpose.

So to bring one of these animals onto a plane, you basically need to tell the airline that your cat or dog or turkey is helping you with a condition recognised in the DSM, that's the psychiatrist's bible. And a lot of people bring their pets on planes because they say it helps them with things like anxiety or depression. To wade through the research on emotional support animals, we called up Hal Herzog at Western Carolina University because he's been studying animals for decades,

all kinds of animals. So I spent a lot of time in swamps knee-deep in water calling baby alligators and their moms. Do you want to know what a baby alligator sounds like? He knows exactly what I want to know. A baby goes, ow, ow, ow, ow, and that's telling its mama it's here. And then if you grab the baby and start, for example, pinching its toes and it starts to feel some pain, it starts screaming for its mom, and it sounds like, ow, ow, ow.

Why would you do that, Hal? Why would you do that? It's science. What kind of question is that from you, that, Hal? Why would you do that? It's science. What kind of question is that from you, of all people? Hal has moved on from pinching baby alligators, and he's a professor who studies anthrozoology, which is a fancy word for the science of human and animal relations. So right off the bat, Hal told me that when it comes to animals and stress,

there is something here. The evidence that some animals can reduce stress in the short term for some people is actually extremely good. There are a lot of studies that have shown that. And there's very good evidence that, for example, petting a dog for many people, not everybody, but it can reduce blood pressure, reduce heart rate. Really? Just from petting a dog? Yeah, very good evidence. Very good evidence. For example, one study found that when kids were getting their blood drawn, having a dog in the room made them feel less distressed and even made their stress hormones go down.

Other studies have found similar stuff. And Howell has seen the power of pooches firsthand. Like, there was this therapy dog that he saw at Charlotte Airport and it had a vest that said, pet me. And I sat there for half an hour and I just watched people walk by this dog. Dog's name was Dylan. And the number of people that just bent down and petted that dog for just a couple seconds and talked to it, maybe kids that gave it a hug, was just stunning. I played with them too, and it sure made me feel a little better. So, dogs can make you feel good. But you know what

else can? A blanket. Yeah, researchers at Yale gave kids either a blankie or a dog to play with, and found that both of them made the kids feel less anxious. So this is my answer to the therapy dog problem that airplanes are dealing with now. Blankies. Okay, okay. Hal is kind of joking. After all, this is just one study in kids who haven't been diagnosed with a mental health condition. So what about the adults who have? Like, can pets help them with their anxiety? Well, generally speaking, when you look at the research, there's actually not a clear answer for whether having a pet will improve your mental health. Well, some studies have found yes and some studies have no.

Some work finds that people with pets have higher rates of depression. Some find they have lower rates, which means we don't know if having a pet around makes it less likely that you'll be depressed or have other mental health problems. But maybe, maybe there is something about being on a plane, thousands of feet up in the air, that special pets can really help with. We asked Hal about this.

So do we have any evidence that bringing a dog or an alligator or a spider, for that matter, on a plane can help someone's mental health? I have searched for that evidence and I have found absolutely nothing. It's really quite shocking. What do you make of people who say, like, I need to have my dog on this plane, otherwise I'm going to have an anxiety attack? Well, what I would say to them is that we don't have evidence that that is the case. And until we get evidence that that is the case, I'm not sure we should be doing this. The evidence for emotional support animals seems to be in the doghouse.

Now, that doesn't mean that everyone who says they feel better having their pet on board is lying. But it does mean that we don't have the studies to back them up. And there could be something else going on here too. A study of 150 pet owners suggested that being overly attached to your pet might in itself be a sign of mental illness. That is, if someone is so close with their dog that they can't be apart from them, there may be another problem here. So when it comes to emotional support animals, is it a load of crock? Well, pretty much. While animals can make us feel good and it can be nice to give them a little pet, the evidence just isn't there to say that they can help with serious mental health problems.

And when it comes to animals helping us specifically on planes, the cat's out of the bag. There's no evidence that they can. So, knowing this whole thing just doesn't have teeth, how did we get here with a menagerie on your flight? Well, Hal says that part of it has to do with how easy it's been to get a pet on a plane when you call it an emotional support animal. Until recently, all you needed was a couple of hundred bucks

and a letter from a licensed mental health professional. And as Hal found out, it didn't take much to get one of these letters. Hal tried to register his cat Tilly as an emotional support animal. So he went online and took a test. So I took their psychological test to see if I had a form of mental illness and I qualified. What questions did they ask you? Oh, they questioned really difficult questions like, do you ever feel stressed when you have to speak in public. And I said, well, everybody, yeah. And I got it. I answered maybe 10 or 15 questions.

I got to think back. Congratulations. You know, you're sufficiently mentally ill that you qualified to get an emotional support vest for Tilly. So voila, you've got your Tilly on your lap during a flight. But a word of warning to animal lovers. Some airlines have announced that they're quacking down on bringing pets on planes,

which means it might make it harder for those freeloading felines to get on board. So maybe if you're looking for a bit of comfort on your flight, try a blankie next time. It'll be much less likely to poo in the aisle. That's science versus emotional support animals. Next week, DNA tests. Can you trust them?

It's a really interesting mess, but dear God, I wish I did physics because it's so much easier. This episode was produced by Meryl Horne with help from me, Wendy Zuckerman, Rose Rimler and Michelle Dang. Our senior producer is Caitlin Storey. We're edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact-checking by Diane Kelly and Michelle Dang. Mix and sound design by Peter Leonard.

Music by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to all the researchers we got in touch with for this episode, including Molly Crossman, Dr Karen Thodberg, Cassie Bonnes, Dr Rob Young and Dr Helen Louise Brooks. And thanks to the Zuckerman family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. I'm Wendy Zuckerman. Back to you next time.