Woman's Emotional Support Squirrel Delays Flight

I love animals, well pets anyway. I admire some wild animals, especially wolves. I abhor hunting and/or people who kill animals for fun. I don't view animals as assets to be cancelled when they cost too much. Down south I certainly wasn't the fellow tasked with taking the old faithful dog behind the shed and dispatching it with a mercy shot. Not me. But I still maintain that there is a qualitative difference, both moral and physical, between animals and humans. Humans shouldn't be needlessly cruel towards animals. Humans should accept that animals are not human. I love my dog. But my dog is a dog. It is not a human. Not every space is appropriate for a dog. Dogs possess viruses, parasites, and bacteria that are best left to dogs, not humans. Even the best behaved dog has some pretty nasty habits by human standards. 

I am generally skeptical of people claiming that they need emotional support animals at all times. I accept there might be a few children with serious medical issues who get some advantage from constantly having their animal around them. With a few exceptions I think that most adults who claim to need an emotional support animal would do better with a kick in the butt. And I feel that way about grown people who say that their dog is an emotional support animal. When it comes to adults arguing that their squirrel (!) is an emotional support animal, I have no sympathy. I don't want to be around rodents. And a squirrel, despite its fluffy tail and good pr, is a rodent. It's a rat with a press agent. So no, don't come to my house claiming that you just can't bear to be without your pet squirrel. That's nasty. I won't let you enter. Frontier Airlines apparently feels the same way. 

The woman who was escorted off her Frontier Airlines flight Tuesday after bringing her emotional support squirrel on board is speaking out against the airline. Cindy Torok told FOX 8 News Wednesday that she called the airline ahead of time to get clearance and even made it through TSA with her 11-week-old squirrel, Daisy, before the airline forced her to leave the plane. 

"They said, 'Either you walk off the plane or I'm going to arrest you for trespassing, and we will take that squirrel,'" Torok said. "I said, 'You're not taking my squirrel. Sorry, you're not. I refuse. You will not take my baby from me.'" Torok said her daughter was reimbursed and Frontier gave her a voucher for another flight, but she still plans to seek legal counsel after the ordeal. 

"I was treated very poorly. I was called a liar by one of the stewardesses," Torok said. "I'm going for blood. I'm going all the way. I'm contacting an attorney."
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Whatever Torok claims to be going through (social anxiety?)  millions of people in this country have already faced. And they've done it without snuggling up to a furry little bubonic plague incubator. The whole point of being an adult is that you face the world as it is on your own two feet and/or with the help of your friends and family. You don't run blubbering to your pet squirrel. Grow up!! I think Torok missed a critical social/psychological growth period in her life. That's too bad. But that doesn't mean the rest of us need to sit next to her squirrel. What's next? Cuddle Cobras?  Buddy Bedbugs?