The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that two million pets travel by air in America each year, many of them in the cargo holds of airplanes.

And these cargo holds can be very dangerous places for them due to a number of factors: noise emanating from nearby jet engines, extremely hot or cold temperatures, and extremely poor ventilation and air flow.

Finally, after much too long a wait, the rules for the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act will go into effect today - June 15, 2005.

Starting today, the airlines are required to report any travel incidents involving animals on their airplanes to the Department of Transportation's Aviation Consumer Protection Division (ACPD). APCD will then make these complaints public in its monthly online publication, The Air Travel Consumer Report.

Airlines will now be required to report these incidents to ACPD within 15 days at the end of every month.

And there are truly many horror stories about pets becoming gravely ill and even dying in the cargo holds of airplanes today.

If you plan to fly with your pet in the near future, at least now you will be able to make a more informed choice about which airline to choose, based on these mandatory records of negative incidences involving our dogs and cats.

Background:

Way back on April 5, 2000, thanks to the efforts of Senator Frank Lautenburg (D-NJ) and Representatives Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), and others, the following provisions of the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act were signed into law as part of P.L. 106-181:

Airlines are required to report to the Secretary of Transportation any incident involving an animal who is injured, lost, or killed during airline transport. The secretary must then make the information available to the public in the Department of Transportation's monthly publication, Air Travel Consumer Report.

And airline baggage handlers must be better trained in animal care and safe animal transport techniques.

Unfortunately, two other Lautenburg-Menendez proposals were not included in the final legislation which goes into effect today:

The cap on money that families can recover from airlines for animal tragedies would have been made twice as high as for ordinary baggage.

Airplanes being retrofitted for fire prevention would also have been required to be retrofitted to protect the health and safety of live animals by improving temperature control and ventilation systems in their cargo holds.

If you have a bad experience flying with your pet, please visit the Humane Society’s website below and fill out one of their Air Travel Incident Reports.

And please do your airline homework before putting your precious dog or cat on that plane.  It truly might save you from needless heartbreak, and your pet from needless pain, discomfort, or even death.

It also appears that a few airlines will no longer transport live animals due to these new government reporting requirements.  Before booking your flight, you may want to know that information as well.