Need cat airport travel experience advice!

bastfriend

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Hi all, soon I may be traveling by air checking my two cats as baggage.   They are both too big to go under the seat in the cabin and I have no option to leave them at home as I'm moving.   It's been many years since I did this but when I last did in 2005, the TSA made me take both cats out of the carriers before they were checked.      Is it still that way to today?     I am very worried because one of my cats is a reformed feral and there may be serious risk of injury to her, me, the agents and of losing her if she's out of that carrier in an uncontrolled environment even for a nanosecond.     If they insist on taking her out, I will insist on it being in an enclosed room but even then it won't be pretty.   I remember well the story I read here about HersheyRose and the TSA which occurred a couple years ago.

So anybody got any recent airport experience?  Advice?
 

red top rescue

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I suggest you send them with an experienced pet transport company.  Do your research and find out with a great reputation that handles your area.  Don't risk your previous babies to baggage claim.  Too many things can go wrong.  Even if you are flying, you culd ship them by ground depeending on the location and time involved.  Baggage handlers are not specifically trailed to handle animals in case of emergencies,  Use a professional.
 
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bastfriend

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Thanks Red Top Rescue, but I must ask when all is said and done when the distance is thousands of miles the professional pet transport people still have to ship the pets by air - where they are then moved from plane to plane by the same baggage handlers they would be if I just do so myself.    How is it really any different?
 
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