As an increasing number of people fly with their pets, it is important that they have a place to relieve themselves. Now, many airports have pet relief areas, but so far they are outside and most require you to go back through security. San Diego has come up with a solution for that, they now have a doggie potty indoors with the Men, Women and Family bathrooms. The full story from Dogster is below.
San Diego might have trouble electing an appropriate
person to be mayor, but the city scores high marks in giving traveling
dogs a nice place to conduct business. San Diego airport has the
nation's first fully enclosed indoor dog bathroom, according to U-T San Diego
Located in Terminal 2 West between Gates 46 and 47, the
75-square-foot "Pet Relief" airport comfort station is a wonder. It
includes fake grass, two deodorizers, a hand-washing station, and
complimentary baggies. It also has a fire hydrant, giving dogs a place
to aim. Just as important: Maintenance workers clean it twice a day.
"It's with our other restrooms, men's, women's, family, and animals," airport spokeswoman Katie Jones told the Los Angeles Times.
The facility opened in April as part of the of the
airport's $1 billion expansion of Terminal 2 and has flown under the
radar until the story took hold last week.
"I've received calls from NPR, Reddit, Huffington Post,"
said Jones. "A national game show made it a question. We've really
gotten a lot of attention, and it's been very positive."
Interestingly, the airport already has four other pet
relief areas, but these are all outdoors, outside of the security areas.
The new one is notable for being inside security, so you don't have to
deal with the line again. It's also notable because the fire hydrant is
just too much.
Jones told the Times that the pet restroom fulfills a
Department of Transportation requirement for airports to provide an area
for service animals to relieve themselves. The San Diego airport opened
it to all dogs, however.
Other airports do have indoor pet relief areas, but this
one appears to be the only one that's fully enclosed, just like a
regular bathroom.
