Mary Gaidry, 56, of Franklinton, was booked after an encounter with deputies at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The charges listed were aggravated assault upon a police officer, battery of an officer with injury, criminal mischief and resisting an officer, according to NOLA.com. The charges are allegations; the available account does not establish how the case will be resolved.
The account reported by NOLA.com says the dispute began after Gaidry’s service dog defecated on the terminal floor. A deputy questioned her as she gathered napkins to clean the area. The St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office said she threw the waste bag at a deputy, hitting the deputy’s shoulder; deputies later struggled to detain her after she allegedly kept hold of the dog’s leash. A Jefferson Parish deputy cut a finger during the struggle, and Gaidry was treated for a cut to her hand. Her dog was released to a friend. Gaidry was later released on a $15,000 bond. NOLA.com reported that she and her attorney had not responded to a request for comment.
Service-animal access and handler responsibilities
Federal guidance places responsibility for a service animal’s care and supervision, including toileting, on its handler, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The department’s guidance generally protects service-animal access, while allowing removal in limited circumstances, including when a dog is not housebroken or is out of control and its handler does not take effective action. Those standards provide context; they do not establish whether either condition applied in Gaidry’s case.
MSY lists a post-security pet relief area near Shake Shack and an outdoor service-animal and pet relief area on Level 1, between the short-term parking garage and terminal. The airport says the outdoor area is reached by exiting Door 5 and turning right, according to its accessibility information. The reported encounter occurred on the main terminal floor, not at one of those designated relief areas.
A limit on airport-disruption comparisons
The Federal Aviation Administration’s unruly-passenger figures should not be treated as a measure of incidents like this one. The FAA says its investigations concern incidents reported to it by airline crews; that is a different reporting category from an encounter in an airport terminal involving deputies. The agency’s data therefore do not, by themselves, show a broader trend in terminal disputes or indicate whether it will take action in this case.
