You'll be sad to know airports are striving to be more pet friendly. 55 volunteer PUP (Pets Unstressing Passengers) therapy-dog teams that roam terminal areas to provide affection and comfort to help alleviate stress that passengers may experience during travel. The LAX PUP Program is the largest therapy-dog program among all U.S. airports.
The Justice Department and the LAX authorities are looking into the PUP program to see if it is even lawful.
Originally Posted by YourLocalGP
Allergies do not discriminate between different types of dogs. For people sensitive to dogs to the degree that having dogs on leads walking around hard, impervious floors that are cleaned daily, an airport won't be a friendly place anyway. As others have said, there are assistance dogs and security-sniffer dogs there all the time. Not to mention dander from clothing of people who are surrounded by dogs all day.
Can't remember the last time I saw a boarding area that didn't have carpet and upholstered furniture, and security dogs in airports, at least in the U.S. are still relatively rare. We usually only see them at customs or bag claim.
One very important thing to consider with allergies is the load factor: a service dog at the next gate is not going to generate sufficient allergens to cause a reaction in someone. Add another 10 pet dogs to the area, and then there's a major problem.
Originally Posted by YourLocalGP
There are plenty of justifications for why dogs shouldn't be allowed somewhere; I can't see how in airports, allergens are one of them.
Perhaps if you don't understand the problem it would be advisable to refrain from commenting on it, especially for your very first FT post.