Last month, to the consternation of a few readers, we blogged about emotional support pets, citing an article in The New York Times which noted pushback against pets riding for free on planes with no systematic standards as to what constitutes emotional support and medical necessity.

Psychiatrist Dinah Miller, who has been in the position of reviewing such use, chimes in to discuss the criteria involved and her thought process:

Like most things, defining the lines of what it is to “need” an animal on a flight and what training should be required for “support” pets won’t be a problem until someone is bitten or distressed, or until a passenger announces they must bring their emotional support snake aboard a flight where someone has a phobia. In the meantime, I’ll contend that I like seeing an occasional cute dog on planes, but this isn’t a psychiatric issue.