A Spirit passenger claims that the airline suggested she flush her emotional-support hamster down the toilet

Flickr / Peter Houghton

Airlines have been introducing policies that require passengers to provide additional assurances that emotional support animals are medically certified and able to behave on an airplane.

• A woman claims that a Spirit Airlines employee encouraged her to flush her pet hamster down an airport toilet.
• The airline said that it mistakenly told the woman the hamster would be allowed on the flight, but it denied that any employees recommended flushing or harming the animal.
• The woman is reportedly considering filing a lawsuit against the airline.

The debate over what counts as an emotional-support animal, and which animals should be allowed on commercial flights, has become a near-crisis for airlines.

Now, Spirit Airlines is in trouble after a woman alleged that an airline employee encouraged her to flush her pet hamster down an airport toilet, the Miami Herald first reported. The woman, Belen Aldecosea, claims the hamster was a certified emotional-support animal.

The incident stemmed from a miscommunication between Aldecosea and Spirit. Aldecosea said she called the airline twice to make sure her hamster would be allowed on her November 21 flight home from Baltimore to South Florida. Each time, an airline representative told her the hamster could fly with her, a Spirit spokesperson confirmed to the Herald.

But Spirit doesn't let rodents on its flights, which a Spirit employee told Aldecosea before she went through security at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

Aldecosea says she was left in a difficult position. She didn't have any friends or family close enough to pick up the hamster, wasn't able to rent a car, and needed to return home to attend to a medical issue. Eventually, a Spirit employee allegedly suggested that Aldecosea release the hamster outside or flush it down an airport toilet.

Aldecosea chose the latter.

"She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet," Aldecosea told the Herald. "I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the stall."

Spirit denies that any of its employees encouraged Aldecosea to flush or harm her hamster, according to the Herald. The airline did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The controversy follows a recent incident where a woman unsuccessfully tried to bring a peacock on a United Airlines flight after claiming it was an emotional-support animal. United and Delta Air Lines have introduced new policies that require passengers to provide additional assurances that emotional-support animals are medically certified and able to behave on an airplane.