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Service dog owner glad airlines are cracking down on comfort animals

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — United Airlines will tighten their rules starting March first. The decision comes just days after someone tried to take an emotional support peacock on a flight in New Jersey.

The airline said the number of comfort animals jumped 75 percent last year.

41 Action News looked into the steps it takes to register your service animal.

Right now there are dozens of websites where you can register your pet to be an emotional support animal, and it only takes a few minutes.

Since the process is so easy, people who use service dogs feel the system is being abused.

Kevin Owens, an army veteran with PTSD, said his dog Kloe is a service dog, not an emotional support animal. Owens says there is a big difference.

"Service dogs have tasks that they perform. Emotional Support... they do not have tasks,” said Owens.

Owens said since the process is so easy, people are starting to abuse it and trying to pass of their emotional support animals as service animals.

"It's really frustrating when these people go online, buy a vest, buy a certificate for a couple hundred bucks... throw it on their dog and say, 'Yeah, this is my service dog,'" said Owens.

Unlike an emotional support animal, Kloe has gone through months of training.

"These dogs undergo hundreds of hours of training," said Owens.

And for him, Kloe is essential.

"Kloe helps me a lot. She'll also wake me up from nightmares.”

Before he trained her to be a service dog, Owens suffered from anxiety, panic attacks and said he was essentially a hermit in his home.

"She saved my life... she saved my life,” said Owens.

The army veteran said it’s become far too easy for people to pass off their pets as service animals.

He said its creating problems for people like him who actually need that assistance.

"What's happening is these business owners, public transportation... what have you... are looking at us with real service dogs, highly trained service dogs with a question mark,” said Owens.

While the rules on the ground are different than the rules in the sky, Owens said he is glad that some airlines are starting to make changes and he hopes it leads to more regulations across the board.

"If the government has to get involved and start regulating and registering service dogs... service animals... and control it then so be it,” said Owens.