*A warning for those who fly cats on cargo* - Page 2  

I agree. I think that the public needs to be aware of the statistics before transporting their pet.

IMO still goes back to the fact that the breeder never should have put a Sphynx on the plane in freezing weather.

My point being, compare the number of incidents to the hundreds or thousands who fly safely to get an accurate view on things. Just saying 17 died doesn't mean a whole lot if you're not comparing it to anything.
Obviously all the airlines should be doing what they can to ensure safe travels.

How tragic and horrible, that poor baby .

I can't imagine having an animal flown to me and not meeting it first. I think the personality of a pet is SO much more important than its breed or appearance. I know the breeder describes the personality to the future owner, but one person's opinion may not be another person's interpretation. I adopted a cat who was described as "laid back and sweet, a perfect lap cat", and had to take him back to the shelter because he was surly, unfriendly, and a major biter (he did have his sweet moments, but they were always interspersed with long periods of being a pain in the ass, lol).
I suppose breeders would be willing to take a kitten back if it wasn't working out with a family, but what a huge undertaking if you have to pay to ship it back, and put the poor kitten through the trauma of a return flight.

Most times, breeders are shipping to other breeders or those that plan on showing so its not possible to meet the kitten in person before hand. And you have to have a good relationship with the breeder and get references from other owners and/or breeders to know who you are dealing with. Even then, some don't listen.

Most "pet" homes are more local or within driving distance of the breeder's house so there is no shipping. Personally I would not adopt and have a cat shipped to me if it were only for a pet - I do it for show cats only. If I wanted a pet, I'd be adopting from a local shelter where I live.

First of all, I haven't read the entire thread - just the original post. I am a commercial pilot, and I will try to give you the lowdown on checking animals into cargo. Never, never, never do this! When a jet airliner cruises at ~35,000 feet, the atmospheric pressure drops so low that a person would lose conciousness in less than 1 minute, and die in about 10. Thats why there are oxygen masks that drop down, in case of a sudden lose of cabin pressure. In addition, the temperature at 35,000 feet is around 50-60 deg. below zero!

For these reasons, live animals are placed in a segregated area of the cargo hold that is able to be pressurized and heated. The heat and pressurization is controlled from the cockpit. If there are no live anaimals in the hold, the "switch" is off, i.e., no heat or pressurization (to save energy). Believe it or not, this "switch" is called the "dead dog switch". Of course it is not officially called that, but it is in the aviation vernacular.

There are instances (obviously) when this switch is off when it should be on. If the pilot fails to flip the switch, the animal will die. There have been amazing exceptions to this. There is a famous story of a cat that slipped unnoticed into its owner luggage, and survived the trip!

But my advice would be, never check your pet into an airline cargo hold. BTW - If you think I'm kidding about the "dead dog switch" in the cockpit, then please read (or checkout) the book, "The Proficient Pilot" by Barry Schiff, 1985, Macmillan Publishing.

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Thank you for your post. But I've shipped cats and had cats shipped to me over the years and not one time did I have a problem either way. I believe you that accidents happen but in general many pets are shipped with no problems.

You say "never" to ship - so what is the alternative if you live states away and cannot drive to pick up a pet. I show cats and I've gotten show cats from breeders that are too far for me to drive - and I've had no problems at all.

I honestly would not have a problem shipping any pet in the future.

You can take them in the cabin with you. I don't know of any major airline that doesn't permit that nowadays.

That's not my point - I can't fly down to the breeder and bring the cat/kitten back - the kitten/cat is shipped to me. But its more important to be shipping in good weather - not too hot or too cold.

The original case was, IMO, clearly breeder's fault and not the airlines - no reputable breeder ships any cat/kitten in below freezing temps.

The tempeature at 35,000 ft. is way below zero, even if it's 100 deg. on the ground!

Anyway, I wish you good luck....

I'm sorry, but blaming the airline in this case is BS.

First of all - this is a professional breeder; they aren't new to this game. They knew damn well that the climate control ends at touch down, but they were more concerned with making money off of a defenseless animal than protecting said animal's safety.

Animals aren't cargo. They shouldn't be "shipped." If the breeder doesn't care about the animal enough to deliver it themselves, or make arrangements to have someone else deliver it in a way that keeps it under the protection of human hands, and the buyer doesn't love the cat enough to make a trip to pick up the animal--well, neither party involved is fit to have a living creature in their care.

There is nothing WRONG with shipping, if you do it under the proper conditions. Like I said, I've shipped cats and had them shipped to me with no problems.

In this case, no reputable breeder would ship any cat in freezing temps on either end. They would wait till better and warmer weather if the cat/kitten needed to be shipped.

Or like you say - make a road trip to pick them up.

This is kind of my feeling, too. I remember reading about a situation where someone took in a pregnant dog and adopted out the puppies to people she knew over the internet, and had to fly them to their new homes. In that situation, I can understand undertaking the risks of shipping them, and making them go through the stress and trauma of the flight, so that they can get good homes.
But when animals are specifically bred and not rescues, I think it's kind of wrong to make them go through the stress and trauma of a flight, and risk something going wrong and them freezing to death, so that someone can have a particular breed of cat, or continue their hobby of showing cats at cat shows. I just can't imagine how scary it is for the animal to go through that type of thing. All the people, *really* loud noises, temperature changes, etc. What a scary thing for a little kitten.

I've never really experienced any negative problems with the kittens. They don't seem to be scared at all - not like you would think.

Most all breeders will ship from time to time and only rarely is there a problem. And then when there is the media, etc jumps all over it. Its a very small percentage of problems in shipping - nothing that would make it any more dangerous then normal.

Yes its bad when it happens, but to just condem breeders or owners that ship is wrong too. The way some of you are posting, I suppose I'm to be condemed because I ship????

With many breeders, the matches are chosen way before the litter is old enough to go to a new home so this would be difficult.

I'm sorry in advance for the hard line here, but with all the homeless animals, and with 8,000+ being euthanized per day in the US alone, we really don't need breeders!

Every time someone "buys" a bred animal, it represents one more animal that will be put down. If everyone adopted, then breeders would go out of business.

I really do not agree with this. Humour me here for a second... let's just say that breeding was stopped so that we could get all of the homeless animals homes. All of the homeless animals were adopted (say this takes care of all strays and ferals as well) then what happens when all of the animals are adopted and there are no breeders? There would be not pets.

There are some people that just plain do not want a rescue animal, and I can see their point. I fostered for dog rescue for many years, I loved those dogs like they were my own, but I would not consider adopting most dogs that are in rescue. Even if they were a puppy, you do not know the genetics behind that dog. There is only so much that love and kindness can accomplish if the genetics behind the animal predisposition it to be aggressive or mean. If you get it as an adult, you may know what it's like, but there are still the genetics lurking back there and once the dog is comfortable it could go the complete opposite way.

I think breeders definitely have a part in producing pets and other breeders and as long as they are responsible (speuter, the pet comes back to them if it's not wanted, studying thoroughly before breeding, etc) the risks of that animal ending up in a shelter or rescue situation are greatly minimized. In fact, I saw more people return their rescues back to the group than I have heard of my breeder friends having to take pets back.

Some people want specific traits in an animal and for them to have a higher chance of getting those traits, a specific breed is probably better for them.

Sorry to get off topic, but it's just something that irks me since I have worked with rescue and now breed dogs.

There is a HUGE difference between RESPONSIBLE BREEDING AND BACKYARD BREEDING. Doesn't matter if its cat or dog related - the bottom line is REPUTABLE breeders have a waiting list for kittens, they test their animals before breeder and are NOT the ones to blame for what is sitting in the shelters. Those "purebreds" 99% of them are from backyard breeders or mills.

If you want to condem - then start with those and not the responsible breeders! I'm sick and tired of defending legit responsible breeders that get condemed with the byb's and mills. We are NOT the problem.

I chose purebreds because I enjoy showing them and want a quality cat with a known pedigree and that is healthy. I don't buy from just "any" breeder - I buy from reputable breeders.

And I've also had my share of abopting shelter cats too! I have no problem with either.

We currently rescued an abused Labrador. BUT our next dog we get will be a purebred retired show dog (mini poodle). Why? Because I'm not about to deal with the byb and mill dogs in the shelters. I want to know I have a genetically healthy dog from a reputable breeder.