People can’t stop taking their pets to the airport
So, pigs really CAN fly?
Think back to the last time you were just about to board a plane. Perhaps this is the start of a long, seven-hour flight home. You’ve been away for two weeks and you’ve been doing your best to quash that nagging worry that somehow, despite your elderly neighbours’ upmost assurances that they’ll monitor your house with the precision of a sentry, you’ll return to a crime scene; your house has been broken into and ransacked and your precious collection of stamps and international currency has been heartlessly stolen.
Or, maybe, this is your first time flying. You’ve already made it this far through check-in and passport control, and you waved goodbye to your suitcase three hours earlier at the arrivals desk. Now you’re in the departure lounge sipping on an overpriced Costa-Coffee from a cardboard cup. You know you shouldn’t, but as you stare out onto the runway, you just can’t help but torture yourself with the statistics you read when you googled plane crashes the day before, the day before that, and the day before that.
The point is, we ALL worry about something at the airport. I think back to my holiday in Turkey, July 2016. Whilst my friends and I flew home in the midst of a military coup, it was still the rather normal worries about lost baggage and delays that took over my mind. These were perfectly justified worries, too. Within 5 minutes of our coach dropping us off at Antalya Airport, my lost baggage nightmares were occurring right before me. I set my suitcase up on the conveyor belt and within seconds of its short journey up to the luggage scanner, I saw my suitcase’s name-tag get JAMMED in the conveyor rollers meaning that had I not been there to push it through — my suitcase would’ve been left behind.
But what happens if we put a dog in the mix of all the arguments at check-in? Or, let a pig stroll around and socialise with the first-time-flyers in the departure lounge? Can you imagine a duck, sat next to you at 39,000 feet in the air, as you watch Frozen for the third time on your flight to New York?
It’s 2018. So you won’t be surprised to hear this phenomenon has already gripped airports right across the United States.
These sightings first caught my attention in February, when the Miami Herald reported that a Florida woman FLUSHED her pet hamster down a Baltimore Airport toilet. Belen Aldecosea, 21, was due to fly home from college to get a benign growth removed from her neck. In the weeks leading up to the flight, Aldecosea claims she contacted Spirit Airlines to check a special passenger could fly too — her pet dwarf-hamster, Pebbles, a comfort animal.
On the phone, the airline said yes. But upon arrival at the airport, she was faced with a problem. The airline now said no. With her college hours away and car rentals fully booked for the Thanksgiving weekend, Aldecosea was stuck. With nowhere for Pebbles to go, she claims a member staff gave her a final ultimatum. Aldecosea could either release Pebbles outside the airport where she would likely freeze to death, or, flush Pebbles down the toilet.
So, she flushed it.
With Aldecosea all lawyered-up, there is speculation that she may launch a legal case against Spirit. A representative for the airline has since clarified that the employee was wrong to say hamsters are allowed on planes, and denied it was suggested that Aldecosea flush Pebbles down a toilet. In the moment, Aldecosea believed she made the most humane decision possible. She said the following to the Miami Herlad:
“She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet. I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying”
Fortunately, the story doesn’t end with Pebbles. In fact, Pebbles is only part of a large cast of animals that could soon accompany you in the air. It’s emerged that earlier in the year, a New York-based photographer attempted to board a flight with her emotional support PEACOCK, Dexter. Ventiko, Dexter’s owner, was turned away by United Airlines over health and safety concerns and the fact the peacock exceeded the allowed size and weight for carry-on luggage. This shouldn’t have been a problem, though, as Ventiko even booked separate seats for herself and Dexter.
Whilst Pebbles and Dexter were both denied their boarding passes, one lucky duck, Daniel, got to join his owner on a flight across North Carolina. Mark Essig, a passenger on the flight, told the Washington Post he was shocked to see a rather stylish little duck dressed in red shoes and Captain America underwear waltz down the plane aisle. At 4 years old Daniel is of course too young to fly unaccompanied. He was joined by his owner, who introduced the duck as Daniel Turduckedn Stinkerbutt.
He is even reported to have got a window seat!
Who knows? With a bit of luck, your next flight may be the Noah’s Ark of the sky. Expect to be joined by two of every animal.
