20 Bizarre Emotional Support Animals You Can (and Can’t) Bring on Airplanes

In September 2019, American Airlines passenger Abrea Hensley made headlines when she was photographed aboard a flight with her mini-horse, named Flirty. Hensley — who suffers from depression, anxiety and PTSD — takes Flirty with her everywhere, including to the movies and shopping at the supermarket. Flirty even has its own Instagram account, and is believed to have made history as the first-ever horse to fly on a commercial airline flight.

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While miniature ponies are A-OK to bring on flights, an emotional support goat is not. Goats — and any other tusked animal — have been banned from American Airlines.

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A woman was booted from a US Airways flight in 2017 when her emotional support pig became “disruptive.” At first, other passengers were unaware they were flying the friendly skies with the farm animal until the 70-pound porker began roaming up and down the aisle, understandably freaking everyone out. “I was terrified, because I was thinking I’m gonna be on the plane with the pig,” one passenger explained.

Daniel the emotional support duck is apparently quite a hit with passengers when he takes to the skies as a certified emotional support animal for Carla Fitzgerald. “Everyone just took notice of him and fell in love,” Fitzgerald said of Daniel's first flight. “I mean, he’s an adorable, funny and sweet little guy. He was very well behaved at the airport and during the flight.” By the way, the friendly little quacker's full name is Daniel Turducken Stinkerbutt.

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During an interview with Bloomberg, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz described what is arguably one of the weirdest situations an airline had ever encountered, when a passenger was accompanied by both a dog and a monkey, one of which was an emotional support animal for the other. According to Munoz, it wasn’t clear whether the monkey was providing support to the dog or vice-versa.

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When a turkey is usually found aboard an airplane it's between two slices of bread. Not so on a 2016 Delta flight, when a passenger was photographed with his emotional support animal: a live, gobbling turkey, feathers and all. According to the photo, the turkey occupied its own seat on the plane

A 2015 NBC News investigation examined just how easy it is to board a plane with an emotional support animal, despite airline restrictions. To prove the point, an NBC producer easily obtained an ESA (emotional support animal) letter by filling out a simple form, and was able to board a plane accompanied by a dog and a tortoise. “It really is getting to the point where it’s become uncomfortable for other passengers,” said Laura Glading, National President of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, of flight attendants' concerns about having all these critters on commercial flights. “And flight attendants are getting put in the middle.”

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An entire flight had to be evacuated in 2018 thanks to a woman who brought her emotional support squirrel on the plane. "The passenger noted in their reservation that they were bringing an emotional support animal," Frontier Airlines said in a statement, "But it was not indicated that it was a squirrel.” When the crew discovered she was travelling with the rodent, they asked her to leave the plane; she refused. Police were eventually called, with the entire plane evacuated so cops could deal with the woman and her squirrel. The woman was eventually carted off the plane, issuing her fellow passengers a middle-finger salute as she exited.

While peacocks are among the most gloriously colourful and beautiful birds in the animal kingdom, as anyone who’s ever encountered one can attest, they can also be quite a handful. In 2018, a woman flying out of New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport was banned from her flight when attempting to bring her “emotional support peacock” on the flight with her. Although she offered to buy the peacock its own seat, the airline contended the bird “did not meet guidelines due to its weight and size.”

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Jason Ellis routinely makes headlines whenever he flies, as he’s always accompanied by his tiny marmoset, Gizmo. While Ellis has flown frequently with Gizmo, who often rests inside his shirt pocket, he was booted off a flight leaving Las Vegas when he “either refused or was unable to access the documentation” proving that the marmoset wasn’t just a pet and provided emotional support duties for him.

Snakes on a Plane is not only a pretty awesome Samuel L. Jackson movie, it’s also what passengers experienced when a passenger on an earlier flight had left his emotional support snake behind after exiting the plane. "The pilot came, and said, 'Guys, we have some loose snake on the plane, but we don't know where it is,'" a passenger said of the experience; the snake was eventually found, plopped in a plastic bag and placed into an overhead bin for the duration of the flight.

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Those who utilize hedgehogs as emotional support animals have been known to swear by their prickly little pals, but don’t attempt to bring one on an American Airlines flight. In May 2018, hedgehogs were among the varmints to be banned from all the airlines’ planes.

CNN anchor Ana Navarro issued a tweet in March 2018 to announce she had “heard an announcement over the speaker at airport in Albany asking that the person who forgot their emotional support goldfish at the TSA checkpoint, please come back to retrieve it.” She added: “No. I’m not making this up.”

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While kangaroos don’t typically spring to mind as providing emotional support to humans, someone felt differently, and brought a roo on an airplane. Apparently the animal proved to be a big hit with passengers, judging by photos that wound up on social media.

Bearded dragons, mid-sized lizards that resemble iguanas, have been used as emotional support animals by people such as Texas teen Megan Curran, whose bearded dragon, Chief, helps her with anxiety. If she ever decides to take Chief on a flight, however, Curran would be wise to avoid Delta Airlines, which has added that particular animal to the list of animals banned from its flights.

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Sugar gliders — small squirrel-like marsupials native to Australia — have been used as emotional support animals, but, like goats and hedgehogs, are officially on American Airlines’ no-fly list.

According to a Reddit user purporting to be a “former ramp agent,” airline staff once processed an "emotional support goose" that “acted as a soothing flight buddy for the passenger.”

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In a video that went viral after being posted on IMGUR, a female airline passenger can be seen sharing her annoyance at being seated next to a llama. As you’d expect, the comments on social media were hilarious, ranging from, “How cheap were those tickets?” to “We're going on holiday? Great alpaca my bags.”

Emotional support birds such as parrots are a bit of a grey area, with different airlines having different regulations with respect to birds; Hawaiian Airlines, for example, will permit birds so long as they are “harmless, inoffensive, odorless and not require attention during flight.” Anecdotal evidence, however, suggest that parrots can usually be accommodated, provided the passenger has a doctor’s note proving the bird’s role in emotional support.

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A Pennsylvania man deals with depression with the help of Wally, a five-foot-long, 60-pound alligator. Hopefully there’s no air travel in his future; there is not an airline on the planet that will allow a passenger to waltz onto am airplane with a gator in tow.