The Truth about Pets and Traveling
Imagine your pet, injured, bleeding, with hypothermia, soaked in urine and vomit with missing teeth or swollen gums or even worse killed. This is a harsh reality of travel on airlines for many pet owners.
Many airlines simply accept any standard small animal carrier, regardless of faulty mechanics or even missing hardware that easily harms and kills countless animals each year.
A simple search on airline reports will bring a shocking reality to the surface as the horrid tales unfold of injured, missing or killed animals that occur while traveling.
I have focused my travel skills completely on pet travel for the last 4 years and can honestly say that I have NEVER experienced anything like what is described above. The airlines have done nothing but continuously improve all aspects of their live animal and pet programs in the last 4 years. Some of the major carriers in the United States ship in excess of 50,000 pets per year. The FAA now releases monthly the number of incidents reported by the airlines in regard to live animal transport. This information can be found at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/2006/December/0612atcr.pdf
This last week I was shipping 3 pets to Argentina. One of the dogs was very old and had a heart murmur. The vet signed the Health Certificate but strongly cautioned that the journey was going to be hard on the dog. I of course advised the client in Buenos Aires and she was worried but authorized me to go ahead and ship her dog. At the airport the entire staff could not have been more concerned and helpful with this dog. I called the care center for the airport in Houston where the dog was to lay over for a few hours and then travel onward, to check and see how she was doing. They made a special phone call to where she was, checked on her and called me back. The dog arrived in good shape and is now home with its owner in South America. That is one of many experiences I have had shipping pets and dealing with the airlines.
For me as a pet travel agent and pet shipper, the proof is in the planning when sending animals any distance on a commercial carrier. You must be sure that you prepare the pet, and crate correctly. All documentation and paperwork needs to be exact and completed. No cutting corners! Use a professional pet shipper-pet travel agent-and you and your pet will be glad you did!
P.S. Don’t cut corners on anything! Especially on the crates!
August 15th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding The Truth about Pets and Traveling, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong
October 14th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Well, I do not think the airlines have done enough. 3 days ago my wife flew back from Haiti to Miami, a short flight, with our precious english bulldog LADY, the delay on departure and problems on arrivals (almost 45 minute without unloading cargo), on arrival they notified my wife that our LADY was dead, they when I touched my dog’s body, she was still warm. I believe the airlines should be held responsible, PETS are not LUGGAGE, if something happened to my luggage I could care less, but losing our dog BROKE US.
flight AA822 Tuesday October 9th, 2007