In late 2007, we bought a French bulldog, Maggie, from a great, high-end breeder. We just had to have her right away. We were nervous about having her shipped in the cargo compartment of the airplane. But, we knew hundreds of puppies were shipped in airplanes everyday, so we felt reassured. And since we were living in California while the breeder was located on the east coast, we had no other options and decided to move forward with shipping her in cargo.

Because Maggie was being shipped in December, a heating disk was put in her crate to keep her warm. She was also given some food and water. When Maggie arrived in California, her disk was cold and the inside of her crate was covered in food and feces. She was shaking, miserable, and terrified. But we thought Maggie wouldn’t remember much about her trip, since she was only a puppy.

Only later did we realize there was a problem.

Maggie is normally a confident, playful, sweet dog, but every time she hears a plane or a loud car pass by, she turns into a shaking mess and wets herself. Getting her into the car is a constant fight: She starts salivating and vomiting the second we put her in the car. We’ve tried everything to get her to relax and enjoy traveling, but years later, she is still traumatized from her first flight. Just because our puppy made it out of the cargo hold alive, doesn’t mean she wasn’t damaged.

After our experience with Maggie, we began talking to other dog owners and learned of many other cargo hold nightmares. Since puppies are so fragile and prone to health problems, we were shocked and a bit angered that there were no alternative transportation solutions.
That’s why we decided to take action ourselves and form Puppy Air Care. Puppy Air Care provides safe puppy air transportation for your new pet: An experienced Puppy Nanny rides in the passenger cabin of the aircraft with your cuddly canine as he or she is transported to you. Because puppies are people, not luggage.