elmagicochrisg wrote:Can't really blame the owner for not knowing this could / would happen.
You absolutely can. When you throw your dog into the cargo pit you are chancing his life, not to mention putting him under immense physical and emotional stress. If the owner doesn't know that, then they haven't done the proper research and don't deserve to own a dog, let alone make life or death decisions concerning them. Perhaps someday airlines will reach the point where animal care is sufficient and safe, but it's not happening anytime soon, and it's definitely not safe currently.
That's not even taking travel to foreign countries into consideration where the animal will be extremely stressed for several hours and might be subject to non-pet friendly countries such as Japan. Yet people do it anyway, and kill several pets a year in doing so.
The fact that the guy saw the dog very uncomfortable while being put on the plane during the layover and didn't stop it really bothers me as well. I sympathize with him, but he is plain stupid.
