Breeder ships rare pregnant cat via airline. It arrives frozen and dead. According to the airline’s vet, the cat died from uterine toxicity from multiple dead kittens. Because the baggage handlers thawed, froze, and thawed the cat again, there’s no way for the breeder to prove that the cat died from being frozen. The airline has offered to refund the breeder’s ticket, but admits no culpability in the cat’s death.
Cat flown, arrives to new owner frozen [WPRI] (Thanks to bibliophilebullpen!)
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What kind of moron would allow their pet to fly in the cargo hold, especially an extremely rare and pregnant cat?
oh wait, he’s a fucking breeder. no wonder.
“but admits no culpability in the cat’s death.”
So freezing it, thawing it, and freezing it again somehow makes them not responsible for the death?
I know, from now on, if you want to avoid any responsibility for something, just freeze it a few times so you can no longer find the “actual” cause of death, then you can avoid any payment detriments.
I think this is BS, and regardless of how the cat had died, the airliner should be paying for the grief and cost of a new rare cat, pregnant or not.
Rare, heh, I feel like I’m talking about some item in WoW here.
Poor little kitty! :’(
Rare, expensive cat. Pregnant with rare, expensive kittens. Shipped as baggage.
Yeah, dude is stupid. Personification of “this is why we can’t have nice things.”
I don’t care if the airline is found guilty or not. This was gross negligance by the owner, and he’s trying to escape responsibility.
@linoth: Guilty or not the cat is just damaged baggage and subject to the same compensation.
This is so sad and disgusting. Sad that that breeder chose to put a pregnant animal on a plane when several sources clearly advice against it:
http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectId/9D7B6272-6049-4929-9816F017ADADAED3/104/284/294/FAQ/
Though not really surprising since pet breeders are often extremely unethical. (I agree with the poster above, put these people out of business and adopt a homeless pet at your local shelter).
And also sad that airlines don’t offer better ways for animals to travel. If you are flying somewhere and your pet is tiny, you can have it as a “carry on”. But there’s no alternative for larger animals (like dogs over 15 lbs.) to travel. They’re treated the same as baggage, flown in the cargo hold which is not temperature-controlled or pressurized. In the best of circumstances, the experience is terrifying and stressful for the animal. In the worst of circumstances, see above. This cat is not the first animal to have died after being handled like baggage.
This website details a number of animals who died or were lost while in transit by air.
http://www.petflight.com/pet-incidents/list
I want to know who the vet was in Houston that declared the cat dead from dead kittens. Don’t go to that VET!
I don’t get why people have to travel on planes with their animals anyways. Unless they’re seeing-eye dogs.
If you go on vacation, get a pet-sitter. It’s traumatic for the animals.
And some people have serious allergies. My husband and I had a terrible flight because someone had a cat under his seat and he’s terribly allergic. The airline did some shuffling around so the cat was moved, but it was only halfway through the flight before we realized why he was wheezing and having trouble breathing and itching.
I purchased a Sphynx and had her delivered via airplane.. never, ever again. That cat was terrified when we picked her up. This is such a heartbreaking story.
Although, I will admit an internal chuckle when I saw the cat in the video was a sphynx.. since Mr. Bigglesworth in Austin Powers loses his hair during their cryogenic freezing process.
Blm th rln? Nh. r thr nt ngh hmlss nmls n shltrs tht nd gd hms? Slfsh brdrs. Bsds t ws nly ct.
Folks, just a reminder. Piling on the consumer is not appropriate. Constructive suggestions or civil criticism is permitted; comments like ‘this guy makes me sick’ are not OK.
My gf used to work at the biggest animal shelter in the US (kudos if you can figure out where), and she’s told me so many horror stories about how they have to sleep animals daily because they just don’t have space for ‘em…and they’re the biggest shelter in the country!
Breeders are scum. I don’t care what their purpose is. For every dog/cat they breed, they’re killing a shelter animal. In a lot of cases, they’re also inbreeding, which jacks up the bloodlines and results in those crazy purebreeds we all hear about. There’s simply no excuse for breeding animals when the dog/cat populations over overpopulated as is.
Does Best Buy have an airline?
Remember though, to the ones who are citing the cats stay in the baggage area before takeoff, or on the tarmac: cats have fur they can survive cold temperatures.
I mean, my cats go outside in the winter…and they have the last couple days too, (I’m in New Hampshire) they are fine…so unless the cat was exposed for a trememndous amount of time, (or maybe its a hairless cat…?), I don’t see the problem.
Would a pregnant cat not be able to keep its babies warm enough?
MMMMMMMMMMMM Catcicle.
Now I’m hungry
Almost as reprehensible: not naming the airline. How are people supposed to avoid dishonest companies if the media won’t identify them?
(Not Consumerist’s fault; it’s not in the original article.)
@cunninglinguine: Neurotic pets match my personality better.
If the cat was pregnant then she was obviously not an “it.”
@iblamehistory: That’s what’s confusing me about this. If it died of uterine toxicity, wouldn’t the kittens have to be dead for longer than the airline had possession of the cat (in theory)? It sounds to me like the cat died of the infection and then was frozen by the airline to transport the body.
Either way, the guy is an idiot for shipping a cat as baggage in winter from Rhode Island to Oregon. I’m sure the cat was nice and warm in a plastic carrier outside in 10-degree weather waiting to be loaded and unloaded from the plane.
there’s plenty of details for me to be on one side – namely that of pet owner education. Never, ever, ship a pet. Ever. Assuming the airline doesn’t screw up and stick it in the non-pressurized, non-heated baggage hold the pet will be banged around by the baggage handlers, left alone and scared in a dark, noisy room that bumps around constantly (if you didn’t know you were flying, and it was dark and loud, and you had the IQ of a cat, you’d be scared out of your mind in there). Dogs and cats don’t chew gum, and don’t know the “yawn as the plane climbs” trick, so there might even be some pain involved.
It’s just a bad idea all around. If you have to move a pet across country, it’s time to get out the car.
Going through each breed club affiliated with the AKC all of them I’ve looked at have an official rescue group. So if you REALLY desire that designer dog you can rescue one that needs a good home.
Something about mixed breed dogs though, they usually have ‘hybrid vigor’ so they do end up living longer and healthier lives due to a more diverse gene pool. My mom has two dogs she rescued, both mutts, and they are 11 years old. But you really wouldn’t know by how much energy they have and how healthy they look. Apart from the hair on their muzzles turning grey both dogs still act like pups.
I don’t want to hate on this guy, but for God’s sake, when will people stop “shipping” their pets by air? When we needed to get our cat across the country, we DROVE. Yes, much, much slower than flying, yet also not exactly the leisurely cross-country road trip we’d have liked, but the result: a live, mostly untraumatized cat. Sometimes you make sacrifices and do inconvenient things for the comfort/safety of living creatures you love or at least value.
This is sad…poor kitties!! I have a soft spot for animals, especially cats.
@MrEvil: “Hybrid vigor” is a term made up by backyard breeders to help legitimize the practice of combining breeds of dogs to come up with something that has a cute name but is bred for no real purpose or use (Yorkipoos, Chipoos, Labradoodles, Puggles etc.).
Not that there’s anything wrong with a mutt, but I’d rather not see BYBs’ crappy arguments get passed around the Internet as “fact”.
Both of my dogs are from breeders (responsible breeders, one with only a few dogs in her breeding program, one avid breeder who participates in dog shows who had around 15 dogs), and if they are shipped PROPERLY, they are a) placed in a special cargo hold for pets and b) the breeder should refuse to ship them if the temperature will be low enough to even have the slightest possibility of this happening.
It is the breeder’s responsibility to ship the animal under safe conditions. And I am so tired of people who get their dogs from (responsible) breeders getting crucified because they were, in my case, looking for particular traits in a dog breed that are difficult to find in the shelter or rescue, and wanted a puppy, not a dog, which is a personal choice that I completely have the right to make.
I am a Persian cat breeder. I do it to improve the breed, and I enjoy showing my cats as well. It’s a hobby. My cats are my pets. i have shipped cats cross country. Cargo areas are heated and pressurized, and no cat of mine has ever been injured. If that cat arrived frozen, then the heat in the cargo hold failed, and the airline is responsible. It has nothing to do with it being winter or summer. At the heights that the planes fly, it is always below zero.
Ummmm….I suspect this is an Urban Legend. I heard this story told several times while I worked in the airline industry….