Hopes to Put End to Pet Travel 'Horror Stories'

March 15, 2000

By Julie Catalano

WASHINGTON (APBnews.com) -- The House of Representatives today voted to upgrade federal regulations on air travel safety for animals for the first time in more than 22 years.

The measure, tacked on as a rider to the $40 billion Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century, was approved by the House 319-101. The Senate voted 82-17 in favor of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill last Wednesday.

Currently, there are no federal requirements that airlines report incidents of animal loss, injury or death, and these incidents are buried in "mishandled baggage" reports.

Introduced in the Senate in June 1999 by Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act holds airlines more accountable for such incidents.

'Higher standard'

A key provision requires airlines to provide the Department of Transportation with monthly reports describing any "loss, injury or death" of any animal, which in turn would make this information available to the public.

It also focuses on improving the training of baggage handlers and other personnel who handle animals -- for instance, how to ensure the health and safety of animals when there are flight delays.

"This bill will hold airlines to a higher standard of conduct in the way they treat cats and dogs and other pets that belong to caring families. This should put an end to the horror stories of animals being treated like luggage," Lautenberg said in a recent statement.

The measure was also hailed by Carol Brandwein of Woodbridge, Va., whose cat, Toddy, a 9-month-old smoke tortie Persian, suffocated in the cargo hold of an American Airlines jet, covered with luggage piles on top of her kennel, in 1998.

"This is a major win for the animals. Now the public will know which airlines have the best [safety] record when it comes to shipping animals," Brandwein said.

Legislation has its critics

The Air Transport Association (ATA), the industry's trade group, opposed the bill, maintaining that more than 99 percent of the estimated 500,000 animal companions the airlines handle each year reach their destination in good health and without problems. 

Pointing to this data, animal protection groups say that an estimated 5,000 animals are injured or die each year as a result of mishandling by airline personnel.

"If the airline made that same statement about their human passengers, they couldn't get away with it," said Nancy Blaney, director of the National Legislative Office of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

ATA: Data misconstrued

The ATA cries foul, saying that activists misconstrued the organization's data on the number of animals that don't make it to their destinations.

"Many of the animals don't even make it on the airplane [because] they don't have the appropriate kennels or health certificates. We take [this issue] seriously enough that if we don't think the animal is in proper health, we won't accept them for transport," said Diana Cronan, a spokeswoman for the airline industry group.

The American Kennel Club supported the airline industry's position and launched a grass-roots movement to defeat the original version of the bill. "We supported further research of this issue, and that is what the data that the airlines are going to collect will provide," said Stephanie Ortel, associate director of the Kennel Club's canine legislation division.

Some requirements lost

Supporters of the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act consider its passage a victory -- but some animal protections included in the original version were sacrificed in the horse-trading process, as the joint House-Senate conference committee finalized details of the comprehensive bill to reauthorize the FAA and the Airport Improvement Program for the next four years.

The original version of the act required air carriers, "to install, to the maximum extent practicable, systems that permit positive airflow and heating and cooling for animals that are present in cargo or baggage compartments" and "prohibit the transport of an animal by any carrier in a cargo or baggage compartment that fails to include [such] a system" beginning Jan. 1, 2001. This provision has been dropped. 

Animal welfare advocates deplore the loss of this requirement, saying that severe temperature fluctuations in cargo holds, insufficient oxygen or damage to kennels are leading causes of animal injuries and deaths. Pets also have been left overnight on luggage carts and tarmacs in freezing cold and searing heat or run over and crushed by baggage trucks.

TWA charged in dog's death

In July 1999, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Inspection Service, which monitors carriers' compliance with the Animal Welfare Act, charged Trans World Airlines (TWA) with several violations resulting from the hypothermia death of a Quick, a 6-year-old golden retriever.

TWA was charged with failing to "handle the animals, particularly Quick, so as not to cause overheating, physical harm or necessary discomfort"; "ensure that animals in the cargo space had a sufficient supply of air": and "maintain an ambient temperature in the cargo area that ensured the health and well-being of the animals." The matter is still pending.

In 1998, the agency assessed civil penalties of $6,500 against Delta, $25,000 against U.S. Airways and $25,000 against American Airlines; the carriers neither confirmed nor denied violations of the Animal Welfare Act, but they did pay the fines. 

Still, the American Kennel Club is unconvinced that cargo-hold conditions are dangerous. "We were opposed to some of the requirements in the Lautenberg bill, because no hearings had been held and no studies had been performed on the issue," said Ortel. "The data will be collected, and then we'll see if there is a problem, and then some reasonable solutions can be developed."

Owners may suffer financial loss

As originally written, the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act would have assessed a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for each violation against any carrier that "causes or is otherwise involved in or associated with, the loss, injury, or death of an animal during air transport."

This provision also was weakened, so pet owners are entitled only to compensation comparable to that offered for lost or mishandled luggage. Federal regulations now require airlines to pay passengers up to $2,500 for luggage lost, damaged or delayed on a domestic flight.

Aside from emotional distress, some pet owners suffer significant financial loss when an animal is injured or killed during transport.

Brandwein, who breeds Persians, asserts that a cat of Toddy's pedigree and rare color could have fetched as much as $4,000 as a top breeder. And her offspring may have been worth as much as $10,000. "My entire smoke tortie breeding program was destroyed. I don't know if I'll ever get another one with her color and genetics."

Although she took out an $800 airplane insurance policy on Toddy, Brandwein said American Airlines "denied the claim and refused to reimburse the $54 fee it charged for transporting her cat."

Repeated calls to American Airlines to discuss the particulars of Toddy's death were not returned. The U.S. Department of Agriculture still is investigating the case.

Kennel Club happy with bill

Despite losing the climate control and financial liability provisions in the act, Blaney said, "we're well on the road to getting some of the improvements that we need to make air travel safer for animals."

"As far as...the liability and, certainly, the cargo-hold changes, we're not going to leave it -- not by a long shot," Blaney promised.

But Ortel said the American Kennel Club is "pleased" with the bill as is and terms it "a fair and equitable solution" to the issue. "We think that this was a win for dog owners, and we're satisfied with it."

***************************

Julie Catalano is a former APBnews.com correspondent in Texas. This article originally appeared on APBNews.com on March 15, 2000.