Dexter on a hiking trip. Photo by Jane Fowler.
If you’re flying with your dog or cat, you should know about a new federal rule designed to keep them safer.
Beginning in January, airlines will be required to file a report with the federal government if a pet dies, is injured or is lost, the New York Post reports this morning.
Over two million pets and other live animals are flown each year in the USA, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Here are the DOT’s rules about transporting pets by air. Currently, airlines are not required to file stats about pets that don’t make flights 100%, the Post says.
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Jane Fowler and Dexter on a hiking trip. Photo courtesy of Jane Fowler.
One animal activist group called Where is Jack told the Post that it had estimated more than 400 animals had died in the last nine years. One two-year-old Labrador died of heat stroke on a Delta flight to Atlanta, for instance.
The group was started after a cat named Jack was lost in New York’s JFK airport for 61 days in 2011. The cat had escaped before boarding an American Airlines flight. The cat was finally found “deeply malnourished and injured,” the Post says, and ultimately died. Read the Post story for more details.
Readers: Do you fly often with your pets? Tell us about your experiences.
