Airlines May Stop Flying Pets if Rule Imposed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many big airlines may stop carrying pets over the United States if the government makes them report figures on how many animals they lose and how many die or are injured on their planes, an industry group says.

Carriers say they fly millions of animals each year for a fee and endorse government efforts to make animal transport safer. The rule was ordered by Congress and proposed last fall by the Federal Aviation Administration.

But airlines oppose the plan to make them inspect such cargo more closely and submit detailed monthly reports to the Transportation Department on any incident that leads to loss, injury or death of a pet or an animal to be sold as a pet.

Some animal protection groups argue that reporting standards are needed to at least give consumers access to information about an airline's record for handling animals.

There are currently no industry figures for pet deaths or injuries, and the airlines dispute widely circulated claims that roughly 5,000 animals die in their custody each year.

The biggest airlines, through their lobbying group, the Air Transport Association, say the rule would be logistically difficult and cost prohibitive. Delta Air Lines said the inspections could cost more than $1 million annually.

"Many airlines are struggling for their financial survival and would have no choice but to forego carrying pets in an effort to maximize revenue while reducing the cost of burdensome federal regulations," Michael Wascom, the group's spokesman, said.

Some airlines crate cats, small dogs and some birds and permit them to travel in the passenger cabin. They count as carry-on baggage. Larger domestic pets and other creatures are transported in cargo containers in the belly of the aircraft.

Airlines do not object to reporting a dog or cat death. They say those are rare. But they do not want to account for the well-being of every animal.

"Should we also be expected to open up every box of pet boa constrictors to see if they're all alive? It's a physical impossibility," Wascom said.

Delta said it called an expert from a zoo last year to open a container of venomous snakes.

"No matter how well trained, airline employees are not veterinarians with the necessary expertise to fully protect themselves from the danger of handling cold-blooded animals," Delta has told the Transportation Department.

The carrier and other airlines defend their record for transporting animals, and have offered alternative language to modify the proposal.

But animal protection and other groups, like the Humane Society of the United States, argue for reporting standards.

"Either animal suffering during air travel is the rare exception to the rule, in which case reporting it will pose a negligible burden. Or it goes on all the time, in which case it may be something of a hassle for airlines to have to report but all the more necessary from the public's perspective," the Humane Society told the Transportation Department.

But the American Kennel Club, the purebred dog registry, said current practices are adequate.

Pet shipment has got to be an expensive proposition and it now stands, and I wouldn't blame the airlines a bit if, faced with additional regulations, and no doubt with a rash of lawsuits resulting therefrom, they simply said "no thanks."

The mother of my Weimaraner (who is now 2+ years old) was flown from Charleston to Charlotte (change planes) to San Francisco (change planes) to Reno for the purpose of being bred 2½ years ago, then, newly pregnant, back from Reno to San Francisco (change planes) to Charlotte, where I picked her up and drove her the final leg, all the while with no accompanying human passenger. I don't recall what the bill was, but it was incredibly small given the labor intensiveness. As I waited in the freight receiving area, I heard some of the radio traffic giving the "live shipment" notices and the "first off" unloading instuctions. Her crate arrived in the receiving area, accompanied by three employees, long before other bags or the human passengers arrived at the baggage claim area.

I can't say enough about how she was looked after by U.S.Airways, but they can't be making any money that way. Of course, they've since declared bankruptcy. I blame myself.

Read up a little. The AKC is in the business of taking money from breeders for "papers" purporting to certify dogs as "purebred". The AKC is hardly unaware that the breeders are using these papers to scam people into paying huge sums of money for dogs, but it has been well documented that the AKC and many breeders make no effort to monitor the parentage of the dogs. It is also well documented that the AKC has often continued to sell papers to breeders who have been found to be in violation of their state health and animal cruelty laws.

Furthermore, the AKC promulgates and promotes "standards" for breeds, and many of these standards require genetic defects which are harmful to the dogs' health. After the WTC attack, there were several media articles discussing why American (AKC) German Shepherds cannot be used as search and rescue dogs. Following AKC standards, American breeders have bred in a serious hip defect, aimed at exaggerating the appearance of the dogs' hip and rear leg angle. The resulting hips are so unstable that the dogs are prone to serious injuries in search and rescue conditions. So German Shepherds for search and rescue use are imported from Europe, where the breed organizations have not engaged in this idiotic practice.

The German shepherds are just one example of many. Shar-peis are now being bred with such exaggerated facial skin folds that a large percentage require surgery as puppies to prevent serious eye damage. But this is no obstacle to the AKC selling papers to breeders for these dogs, nor is it any obstacle to having the dogs shown and awarded in AKC sanctioned dogs shows.

They're certainly responsible for continuing to sell papers to people who they KNOW are puppy millers (which they do routinely

And... just how do they *know* this? Is someone over there going over the thousands of litters born in this country each year, figuring out exactly how many litters are bred by whom and checking to see whether to dogs are all socialized properly and that the papers don't have any false info on them, etc. etc... you want the AKC to become a policing organization? If the dog is purebred, it's purebred - regardless of its health problems or the health problems of its parents. There are breed clubs that promote ethical breeding, that's not the AKC's job. If people didn't BUY the puppy mill puppies, there wouldn't be any puppy mills. Breeders should screen buyers, buyers should screen breeders.

The AKC's Position statements

Breeding Restricions

The American Kennel Club strongly supports and actively promotes a wide range of programs to educate the public about responsible breeding practices and the responsibilities of dog ownership.

The American Kennel Club opposes the concept of breeding permits, impact fees, breeding bans or mandatory spay/neuter of purebred dogs. Instead, we support reasonable and enforceable laws that protect the welfare and health of purebred dogs and do not restrict the rights of responsible breeders and owners who take their responsibilities seriously.

...1. AKC's current inspection program shall include kennels/individuals offering dogs for sale at auctions.
2. The American Kennel Club considers auctions and raffles not to be reasonable and appropriate methods to obtain or transfer dogs.
3. All dogs sold at auctions, regardless of age, must be permanently identified by either readable tattoo or microchip prior to being sold at auction. Dogs sold at auctions without the required identification will become ineligible for registration and shall be placed on permanent referral.
4. The American Kennel Club discourages Parent Club rescue groups from purchasing dogs at auctions. Although Parent Clubs may be doing good things for individual dogs purchased at auctions, it perpetuates the problem and tends to create a seller's market. Reciprocally, auctioneers seek more dogs of those breeds to offer at auctions. AKC applauds the work of Parent Club rescue groups on many fronts. However, AKC believes that the purchasing of dogs at auctions is not overall in the best interest of purebred dogs.

...Enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act

The Federal Animal Welfare Act administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is intended to regulate commercial breeders, dealers and caretakers of dogs. USDA has regularly strengthened the standards for humane care and treatment of dogs and other animals by persons regulated under the Act. The American Kennel Club supports increasing the number of USDA enforcement personnel dealing with commercial dog operations and strong enforcement of the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act.

Proper Care and Humane Treatment of Dogs

Dog owners bear a special responsibility to their canine companions to provide proper care and humane treatment at all times. Proper care and humane treatment include an adequate and nutritious diet, clean water, clean living conditions, regular veterinary care, kind and responsive human companionship, and training in appropriate behavior. The American Kennel Club does not believe that dogs should be kept in circumstances or numbers where these needs can not be adequately fulfilled. Anyone convicted of animal cruelty will have all AKC privileges suspended.

Protection for Puppy Purchasers

The American Kennel Club supports reasonable laws and regulations intended to protect the pet-buying public in obtaining a sound dog of the breed represented. Breeders and/or sellers should be responsible for providing certain refunds, replacements or reimbursements should the dog sold become ill or die from a condition contracted prior to the purchase. Such remedies should be conditioned upon the buyer's scrupulous adherence to the care and feeding program prescribed by the breeder and/or seller, as well as a timely examination by a state licensed veterinarian. Breeders and/or sellers should provide buyers with a written bill of sale detailing the responsibilities of both the buyer and seller. This bill of sale should also detail any exclusions to refunds, replacements or reimbursements.

"Puppy Mills" and Sale of Puppies Through Pet Shops

The American Kennel Club endorses breeding of dogs by responsible breeders for the purpose of improving breeds of purebred dogs. We oppose random, large scale breeding of dogs solely for commercial purposes. We believe all breeders bear a responsibility to assure that those who purchase their dogs understand and are capable of carrying out their responsibilities as owners.

The AKC believes the solution to the problem of random, large scale breeding for commercial purposes is scrupulous enforcement of the federal Animal Welfare Act and state and local regulations governing the humane care of animals. We further recommend and support programs that teach the public to purchase puppies from responsible breeders and to avoid impulse buying of dogs.

Selling hundreds of papers annually to a single breeder or mailed to a single address ought to be a clear tip-off. But of course there are many well-documented reports by various state health and animal authorities of mills where hundreds of dogs are housed in horrible conditions, and which have been shipping huge numbers of registered dogs to auctioneers and retailers.

As for the buyers, they are routinely duped. People ought to be wise to pet shops by now, but many sellers are operating out of their homes, representing to buyers that the dogs were born there, when actually they were purchased from from dealers who bought them at auctions. A couple of years ago my boss and his wife went to the suburban home of such a seller, to buy a Maltese puppy. There were three or four puppies and no sign or mention of any others, Maltese or any other breed. They thought about getting two, but decided to get just one. Then they went back a couple of days later to get another one (just called first to ask if there were still any puppies left). They got there to discover no Maltese were left, but a litter of several week old Yorkies had suddenly turned up.

I'm not trying to say that everybody involved in the AKC is a scammer or puppy miller, but an objective review of the evidence indicates that the AKC routinely looks the other way so as to continue selling papers. The worst part is that they promote the idea that the papers are worth something and provide evidene that the dog is somehow "better" than the average mutt. The papers are what convince so many buyers to shell out huge sums for unhealthy and defective dogs, and the huge sums are what drive the puppy mill business.

If the AKC were seriously committed to welfare of breeds and individual dogs, they would 1) stop promulgating damaging standards, and 2) strictly limit the number of papers issued for each breed annually, based on the readily available evidence of overbreeding and certain breeds ending up in shelters in disproportionate numbers. Why issue a gazillion registration papers for Dalmatian puppies being bred to cash in on round two of the 101-2 Dalmatians movie fad? There was NO possibility that the number of dogs being bred and registered were being bred by responsible breeders who would sell them via legitimate channels to good homes -- but the AKC took the cash and handed over the papers anyway.

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