Just Because The Airlines Will Take Them Doesn't Mean You Should Send Them!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Just a reminder that sending dogs on airplanes isn't always a great thing to do.  I know that sometimes it is necessary (I've had to do it myself when we were Military), but just use common sense.  In my opinion there is no way dogs should be put on a plane when it is already 86 degrees at 7 in the morning!



http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/08/04/illinois.airline.dog.deaths/in...

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Very sad story indeed. From another news story the dogs were all puppies; 5 were already dead when the plane landed in Chicago and 2 others died at the vet's office. Too, too sad.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This article made me absolutely ill. You cannot imagine what the air was like here in the Chicago area over the past few days, and that's outdoors. 100% humidity, and so oppressive that Jack would walk about a block, stop, and refuse to move until I headed back home. The temperature may have been 86, but it felt like being in a sauna. Imagine what it was like in a cargo hold without climate control for those poor, poor puppies.

[Frannie & Callie]

I have to agree! When I was little, we frequently flew our dog wherever we were going but no one knew it was bad back then! My cousin had to fly his dog (gorgeous black german shephard named Bagheera) once and the airline dropped his carrier. Bagheera ended up having to have back surgery and was never the same.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I thought they were not allowed to do this????? Sister was goign to take her chihuahua to London if she had moved there. She had international microchip and everything. Then found out (maybe this is for international flights only) that it has to stay within a certain degrees in the air the ENTIRE time you fly. So if you hit a patch below 50 or above 80 or something, they won't let you take the dog. I am not 100% on the details. She had decided to book a cruiseliner instead....

This is OUTRAGEOUS.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Here's the article that was in the local news coverage. It has more detail, I think:
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Death-of-Seven-Puppies-Pr...

[Denise & Hunter!!!]

My friend ships her shelties (not that I agree!) and I know she has been told about having to stay within certain temps the entire time. Wouldn't you just want to error on the side of caution?

I have said it before, I am a corporate international travel agent and have been for 19 years now - I see how terrible the airlines treat their "human" passengers that a poor, helpless dog or puppy is just a "sitting duck". This story makes me SICK.

[Denise & Hunter!!!]

This is a link to IATA's animal shipping regulations --

http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/live_animals/Pages/index.aspx

"IATA is the prime vehicle for inter-airline cooperation in promoting safe, reliable, secure and economical air services - for the benefit of the world's consumers. The international scheduled air transport industry is now more than 100 times larger than it was in 1945. Few industries can match the dynamism of that growth, which would have been much less spectacular without the standards, practices and procedures developed within IATA."

If you go to the FAA's website they make it very difficult to find the rules and regulations of more than animals being transported in the cabin- typical of a US government agency.

[Camilla and Darwin]

did anyone see the link to the companion air company? Has anyone used them?

http://www.companionair.com

Edit: I just looked at the site and apparently they aren't actually operating yet, but are projected to in the next 3 months.

[Adina P]

Absolutely horrible! So sad. Ugh ugh ugh.

[Lynda Kamrath]

The heat is definitely a factor in shipping by air. I know that any flights that go through Phoenix will not take dogs during the summer months. The other factor is the medication that is given to puppies when they are being stuck in the belly of a big airplane for their first trip away from their mother and littermates. Hondo was definitely traumatized by his airline flight and Groucho Too traveled with a littermate. Neither of them was medicated, but some breeders do that also. Common sense is definitely required.

[Jacquie Yorke (DRC)]

You are no longer permitted to medicate animals prior to air travel......

Air travel naturally lowers blood pressure ...

Medication such as tranquilizers lowers it further...The combination can cause death and has in many of the animal airline death cases.......

[Jackie]

We had to have Beckett shipped to us. I was nervous about it. The breeder told us that if it was too hot they wouldn't ship him on the day we had picked. Don't know if that was her rule or the airlines, (or both) ?