Best airline for transporting dogs as cargo, now that Pet Airways out of business?

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Cairo

Barked: Fri Oct 5, '12 4:51pm PST


	Hi, I can't believe our lifesaver Pet Airways went out of business! Now what? What is the best airline for transporting dogs as cargo? Here are the considerations: - the dog is too large to fly in the cabin, so the dog must fly in cargo. - we are flying cross country from CA to NY. We heard United Airlines had the least amount of deaths (although the Dept of Transportation does not require these numbers to be reported, so who knows where these numbers are coming from) -- but in Sept 2012, there were at least 2 healthy young-adult dogs who died while on United Airlines flights, on 2 separate occasions. For more information, see my blog post http://www.huskydigs.com/category/real-woof-news/ The worst part about this is not just the deaths, but United Airlines' public statements in response to these deaths -- they insist that there were "no irregularities" and they do not provide insight into the matter (in fact, they tried to prevent one of the owners from finding out that her dog was dead, and they lied about the dog being at the vet when in fact he was behind a closed door at the airport, while United waited for their legal counsel) and United did not offer any statements about how they would prevent this from happening or what measures they would take. In other words, no matter what the airlines say, the fact is that their workers treat your dog like luggage. Yes we already know the general pointers: - fly direct (non stop, and no layovers) - avoid the hottest time of the year Any suggestions appreciated! or p-mail me! Edited by author Fri Oct 5, '12 4:54pm PST

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dog-sitter in- charge.

Barked: Sat Oct 6, '12 10:37am PST


	Seems the two deaths reported on your site were both due to heat related complications, and the one with the mastiff seemed not to have been a direct flight, also a short-nosed breed. I wouldn't worry about it... we've flown both the pacific and atlantic oceans and from CA to NY multiple times now without a hitch on multiple airlines. but never in the summer..

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Scooter

Work hard; Play- harder.

Barked: Sat Oct 6, '12 12:11pm PST


	The problem with the numbers posted is that there is no info on the total number of animals the airline handled, thus no way to definitively say Airline X has the least number of pet deaths. For example, if Airline A has 10 deaths/10k animals handled and airline B has 2 deaths/600, which carrier are you going to choose? I've shipped dogs (internationally and CONUS) as checked baggage and cargo. I prefer to send them as cargo because they can then be insured (at little extra cost). It's more of a pain to get them dropped off/checked in. Also, in the case of the mastiff, the dog should have never been accepted for the trip. They are supposed to check the temps for all points on the trip and if it is over 85, the animal is not accepted for travel.

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Jack ~May- '12 - Jul '12~

Live like- there's no- tomorrow

Barked: Wed Oct 10, '12 5:06pm PST


	I was also looking for an airline for my buddy to travel to Texas with his dog...she's a pitbull and no airline will accept "snub-nosed" dogs at all now.

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dog-sitter in- charge.

Barked: Wed Oct 10, '12 7:39pm PST


	I don't think APBTs are considered as snub nosed breeds at any of the airliners I know. United accepts Pits in reinforced crates.

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Lucille

I am the Sock- Bandit!!!

Barked: Thu Oct 11, '12 1:11pm PST


	That's odd, pits are not brachy dogs. Maybe the airline is getting them confused with Boston terriers (?)

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Jack ~May- '12 - Jul '12~

Live like- there's no- tomorrow

Barked: Sat Oct 13, '12 7:53pm PST


	Lilith thank you for letting me know that.

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Jack ~May- '12 - Jul '12~

Live like- there's no- tomorrow

Barked: Mon Oct 22, '12 3:14am PST


	Ok what exactly is a reinforced crate?

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dog-sitter in- charge.

Barked: Mon Oct 22, '12 8:24am PST


	**IATA Container Requirement #82 states that the container or crate must be constructed of wood, metal, synthetic materials, weld mesh or wire mesh. Additional design principles regarding frame, sides, floor, roof and doors also apply. No portion of the crate may be plastic. The crate door must be made of heavy wire mesh, metal or reinforced wood and should have a secure means of fastening that cannot be opened accidentally. http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/anim als/restrictions.aspx

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Crash- Dynamite