Emotional support dogs are a familiar sight on planes as they’ve gotten authorization to fly after proof that they can help nervous passengers on flights.
But on a recent short flight from Milwaukee to Charlotte, North Carolina and then onward to Asheville, passengers were surprised and then charmed to see an emotional support duck.
Daniel, wearing a diaper, wagged his tail and quacked quietly to help his owner stay calm during the flight. The flightless duck then also got to enjoy a view out the window.
The sight of the duck so charmed North Carolina author Mark Essig that he live-tweeted the flight of Daniel on the journey from Charlotte to Asheville.
— Mark Essig (@mark_essig) October 16, 2016
Daniel belongs to Milwaukee resident Carla Fitzgerald who suffers from PTSD after she had a traumatic accident while driving a horse and carriage and was struck by a driver texting on her phone.
Fitzgerald has regularly posted videos of Daniel, known online as Daniel Turducken Stinkerbutt.
Last February, Daniel was in the news after an attempt to ban him. Fitzgerald wrote that she was planning to move to the city of Cudahy in Wisconsin.
As soon as they found out that I planned to move there (I gave a heads up because it’s the polite thing to do)they decided to create a duck ordinance. With NO grandfather clause. When I told them that Daniel is an Emotional Support Animal and is allowed by the Fair Housing Act they still didn’t budge on their stance. It was only after I threatened a law suit and called Contact 6 they they backed off. Hahaha! We win Daniel! Onward in our awesome partnership!
Her doctor prescribed Daniel as a therapy animal when he appeared to have a calming effect on her, especially when he senses a panic attack coming on.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Here is a 3-second video of Daniel the emotional support duck. His human says, 'and wagging? That's happy.' <a href=”https://t.co/WElW9d827o”>pic.twitter.com/WElW9d827o</a></p>— Mark Essig (@mark_essig) <a href=”https://twitter.com/mark_essig/status/787831013703495682″>October 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
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