Delta Airlines will be banning emotional support animals from any flights longer than eight hours starting later this month.

Animals help us in more ways than you might realize. There are the obvious instances that we see on a regular basis such as guide dogs helping the blind, but that is really just the tip of the iceberg. A litany of different animals support thousands of people emotionally and are inventively referred to as emotional support animals.

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The realm is not restricted to dogs and cats alone. People can pretty much have any animal they desire to emotionally support them. If it enables them to feel calm or less anxious when it is close by, then it is to emotionally supporting them. Flying on airplanes is a time when people tend to get stressed, so the need to have an emotional support animal with them at that time has proved quite troublesome.

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Bloomberg reports that due to a sharp increase in incidents involving emotional support animals aboard its aircraft, Delta Airlines is putting some strict rules in place. First of all, no emotional support animals younger than four months old will be allowed on any of Delta's flights. The reason for this is to align with the vaccination policy of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

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The other ruling is that emotional support animals, regardless of age, will be banned from all Delta flights longer than eight hours. Apparently, over a two-year period ending in 2017, incidents involving animals aboard Delta flights increased by 84%. Those incidents include animals urinating, defecating, and even a particular instance where someone was attacked by a 70 lb dog.

The new rules are not currently in place but they will be extremely soon, on December 18th, 2018, to be exact. The rules will apply to anyone who buys tickets for Delta flights on or after that date. Passengers who bought tickets before then and plan on traveling with an emotional support animal have a grace period up until February 1st, 2019. It should also be noted that the ban will not apply to passengers with officially documented needs, such as veterans who need support animals.

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