Southwest Airlines Grounds Emotional Support Animals

Emotional support animals will no longer be allowed on Southwest Airlines flights.

Starting March 1, only trained service dogs will be allowed on board.

"Southwest Airlines will only allow service dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability to travel with the Customer. The types of disability include a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability and only dogs will be accepted (including those for psychiatric service) — no other species will be accepted as a trained service animal," the company said in a statement.

Pets will still be allowed to fly, but travelers will have to pay $95 each way and follow Southwest's current animal policy.

Southwest is the latest airline ban emotional support animals from its planes. American Airlines and Alaska Airlines already changed their policies.

Last year the Department of Transportation gave airline companies the right to ban any animal from flying that isn't a trained service dog, the Associated Press reported.

That decision closed a loophole that allowed travelers to bring most animals on board if they had a letter from a health professional. Under previous rules, a woman tried to fly with a peacock, a dog bit a flight attendant, and a 300-pound pig became "unruly" in first class, among other incidents.

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