The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) has issued an emergency alert warning pet owners to avoid transporting their animals by air, particularly during the hot summer months. ALDF cited airlines continued disregard for the safety of the animals they carry as the reason for the warning.

"Despite hundreds of incidents in which animals have been lost, injured or killed while being transported by airplane, the airlines have shown little regard for the safety of the animals who are entrusted to them," said Valerie Stanley, ALDF senior staff attorney. "We feel compelled to let consumers know that they are risking their pets' lives when they transport them by air."

Stanley said the summer travel season is the most dangerous time of the year for pets to be loaded aboard an airplane. If planes are delayed on the ground, the extreme temperature in an airplane's cargo hold can cause animals to suffer brain damage or die due to hypothermia. Some pets are left to swelter on tarmacs. Others are mistakenly freed on the way to or from the plane, where they are lost or killed.

Flagrant violations
According to ALDF, although the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) require that animals be transported in a manner that ensures their safety and well being, virtually every major airline has a long record of flagrant violations of these rules.

The results can be tragic: Five hours after 81 healthy puppies were put aboard a TWA passenger jet en route from Kansas City to St. Louis, baggage handlers discovered 50 of the puppies were dead due to heat exposure of suffocation. When a Continental jet bound for Denver was delayed for three hours in Philadelphia, three of the five Samoyed dogs being transported in the plane's cargo hold were found dead on arrival. Too many animals needlessly suffer injury or die each year -- and an airline's only liability for the often gruesome death of a beloved pet is limited to the value of a piece of luggage.

"The airlines consider payments or USDA fines for an injured or dead animal as merely a `cost of doing business,'" Stanley said.

Just last December, Stanley noted, United Airlines declined to pay the $4,000medical bill and related expenses incurred by the owner of a dog who suffered ruptured eardrums and other trauma on a flight from Los Angeles to Miami. United contended that "there was no value declared for this shipment" and hence the airline's liability was limited to 50 cents per pound for the116-pound "shipment," or $410.50. United's letter never once acknowledged that the "shipment" was a dog.

ALDF, the nation's only public interest law firm specializing in protecting the well being of domestic animals and wildlife, is preparing a petition demanding that the USDA adopt stricter regulations and improve conditions for animals transported by air. Accompanying this demand will be thousands of petitions from individuals who want safer conditions for animals traveling in airplanes. In addition, ALDF is asking corporations to put pressure on airlines by pledging to favor only those carriers that sign ALDF's cruelty-free pledge to take better care of animals entrusted to them. The Houston Rockets, Frederick's of Hollywood and John Paul Mitchell Systems have already signed the pledge.

"The skies are not friendly to pets. Most airplane cargo holds are unsafe for animals. Until conditions improve, pet owners should never put their treasured companions aboard a plane. Doing so could seal their doom," said Stanley.