That’s right. Apparently the owner, New York City based performance artist Ventiko (Is that single name precious or what?) needs the peacock, Dexter, for emotional support. But United, in a fit of sanity, wouldn’t let the bird board with her on a flight from Newark to LA, even though she bought it a seat. While news reports didn’t specify Dexter’s size, male peacocks can be up to 7’ in length and weigh as much as 13 pounds. Just what any full-fare-paying passenger wants sitting (and shitting) in the seat beside her.
Perhaps if United had known how famous Dexter was (he even has his own Instagram page) they would have made a different decision, but now Dexter is having to travel the slow way, by ground, to LA.
Just another piece of performance art to raise Ventiko’s profile I expect. And it worked.
Do I detect a touch of mockery in your tone David? ;-)
ReplyDeleteUnited could have raised the performance art stakes by offering feathers to the remaining passengers, although I seem to remember from somewhere that it's considered bad luck to have peacock feathers indoors. Presumably, the bad luck would be Dexter's.
Very perceptive Geoff. :-)
DeleteThere are valid service animals and then there are "emotional support" animals and trust me the latter term is abused all the time down here. It is really frustrating when people pull the emotional support animal card and you know they just want to take their pet along.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I have no issue with service animals; in fact I'm in awe of what they can do. But ESAs are a different story. Abuse is rampant and the entire concept (in my opinion) reeks of self-indulgence. People get emotional support from their pets all the time but that doesn't mean they should all have special rights that will trump the rights of others.
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