Two blind Toronto women made it to Stockholm Thursday, but not before a “humiliating” experience on Canada Day — reduced to tears, ordered off of their flight at Pearson and escorted out by police — because a flight crew insisted their guide dogs had to be muzzled.

Amal Haddad and Nayla Farrah, who were flying with Farrah’s 11-year-old daughter, did not have muzzles for the dogs. They don’t even own muzzlesbecause they’ve never needed to use them.

“We travel every year and that was the first time a stewardess asked us to muzzle our dogs,” said Haddad, a civil servant.

“We did it with Air France, we did it with Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, WestJet, Middle East Airlines … Lufthansa,” she said.

But on Wednesday, when Haddad and Farrah were flying Jet Airways to Sweden via Brussels, it was suddenly a problem.

Once they boarded the plane, a flight attendant said there was an issue with the dogs.

Haddad said it was clear the bottom line was non-negotiable. “There was no common ground for communications,” she said. “(It was) either you muzzle or you leave the plane.”

The two refused and police were called.

“A policeman tells two ladies … ‘You evacuate now or we put handcuffs on you’ because we didn’t have muzzles?” she said.

Haddad said the India-based airline scheduled them for another flight the next day and paid for their stay that night at the airport hotel. But that flight was with a different airline, Austrian Airlines, which Haddad was “99.9 per cent” sure would not force the dogs, Nina and E.V., to be muzzled.

However, the Austrian Airlines aircraft was too small for the two dogs, and so the group was forced to take an Air Canada flight to Brussels.

Whether Haddad’s experience was a one-off incident or the result of Jet Airways’ service animal policy is yet unclear. Jet Airways did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A Peel Regional Police spokesman said a flight’s captain has final authority over who flies, and officers were on scene only “for the purposes of keeping the peace.”

Transport Canada spokeswoman Roxane Marchand said the agency itself does not require service animals to be muzzled, but encouraged passengers to check their carrier’s individual policies before flying.

“As a rule of thumb, the animal can remain with you in the aircraft cabin provided it has been trained by a professional service animal institution to assist a person, is properly harnessed and remains under your control,” Marchand said.

Both Nina and E.V. had those harnesses, and both are trained, Haddad said.

Haddad said she planned the trip more than six months ago, looking up the airline’s policy and getting a representative to guide her through the website.

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According to Haddad, nowhere did it say that guide dogs have to be muzzled.

“Once we’re back, we’re filing a complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency,” she said.

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