Where is Jack?

Making Air Travel Safe for Pets

Category Archives: pet air


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When There’s a Problem BEFORE the Problem…

Yesterday, I wrote a post about a woman who was suing Delta Airlines in the aftermath of a debacle… she had used their Pets First service to have 11 French Bulldogs flown to her in Utah from Hungary.  The adult dog arrived deceased at SLC; the 10 puppies were ill and 2 died sometime soon after.  The woman, Barbara Burgett, is now suing Delta Airlines and its subcontractors; her suit does not name any specific charges, but on her blog (Dogs vs. Delta) she suggests that several different laws concerning the proper treatment of animals in transit were violated.

I wrote the post after speaking with Barbara personally for about an hour.  She seems like a nice lady – mother, grandmother, says she gives to Best Friends (in southern Utah) and has rescued many animals.  She said she and her family were planning to “lightly” breed the dogs.  I took her at her word, even though – as someone who is concerned about how many animals we euthanize in the U.S. every year – I’m not a big fan of many of the people who breed dogs.  I do believe in “breed preservation” – but frankly, from what I understand, if you’re interested in preserving a particular breed of dog, you already own that dog and have been participating in breed-specific activities (e.g., dog shows, agility, etc.) long before you decide to breed.  I’m not sure that was her situation.  But  that was a tangent… What was clear was that no matter why they were coming to the U.S., these dogs did deserve to be treated well on their way here – they did not deserve to die of heat stroke on the flight.  Or to become seriously ill because of their time on the plane.

After I posted this piece, and shared it with the Jack page on facebook, I was surprised at the response.  Many people questioned the truth of the story… FoJ Cara Jordan put her concerns the most clearly: ” Can we remove this story until more facts are received. its extremely vague and really, with everything going on regarding Jack, I’d be super careful of putting other unsubstantiated cases [before] us! My family have used delta for some time, and I have NEVER had a problem. Although I think problems can and DO happen, this story is far fetched and I’d hate for this wonderful site to forego any repercussions for posting such an unbelieveable story!”

I obtained copies of the documents Ms. Burgett filed with the court, as well as responses from Delta and the other defendants.  No one asked the court to dismiss the case – which is what they would have done if there were any question about the basic facts.  So I feel confident asserting that this isn’t just some lady in Utah making libelous statements against Delta.

But… even though I am confident in saying that based on what I know about this situation, Delta clearly did not treat these dogs as “precious cargo,” I am still not completely comfortable with this case.  Why?  Because there was a problem even before these dogs were ever put on the plane.

Here’s the premise on which the whole story rests: Barbara Burgett was BUYING these dogs.  They were to become her PROPERTY – their ownership was to be transferred to her because she was willing to pay for them.  It seems she was willing to pay alot of money for them – something around $20,000.  And she was buying them from someone who clearly made it his BUSINESS to buy and sell dogs!!  She says on her blog, Dogs vs. Delta:

Prior to purchasing the dogs, I took the following responsible steps and precautions. I contacted the American Embassy and had them do a back ground check on the person selling them, and to help in finding an interpreter. The background check was clean, and there were no complaints or legal actions of any kind against them. After deciding on an interpreter, I then contacted several veterinary hospitals in their area to inquire about them from the vets perspective (dog care practices etc), and none of these places had any complaints or knew of any complaints. I then contacted four people in the USA that had purchased dogs from this person, and they all said there dogs were healthy and great, and had also arrived healthy. I traveled to see a son of Hector’s, he was beautiful too and the owner had no complaints about this seller either. So, I proceeded forward and over the next six weeks, made arrangements to purchase my dream dogs.

So here we have a situation where one person (in Hungary) who views dogs as mere property to be bought and sold (and has been doing this for some time) is now SELLING the dogs to another person who also views these dogs as property to be bought and sold… and then, of course, Delta is going on to treat the DOGS AS PROPERTY because airline cargo, is by definition, property.  Cargo is not passengers.

And the saddest thing is, ALL ELEVEN OF THE DOGS PAID A STEEP PRICE because they were viewed as property.  Three paid with their lives.

Barbara Burgett says on her blog, “I know that no one that has a love of animals/dogs would ever attempt to make this incident about where the dogs came from, or, how much they cost…”.  Indeed, why would it be necessary to make an issue of their origin if they were treated with the care and respect they deserved from the beginning?  Who cares where a loving creature comes from?? I have many friends who have adopted children from other lands – China, Peru, Slovakia.  Adopting a child from another country is an expensive proposition – I’ve heard of people spending upwards of $50,000 to adopt, including travel expenses.  But it’s about LOVE… and that is reflected in their behavior, not in the money spent!!!  IN NO CASE have I ever heard of a child being put on a plane from that other county and flown to the U.S. alone.  The new parents – the people who have made a commitment to care for this little bundle of love for its lifetime – go to the new country and meet the child and bring him or her to their home.

Of course, no one would go to such lengths to obtain a purse they saw on the web that they thought was really spectacular.  They’d just have it shipped.

And that is what Barbara Burgett did.  And that is what the seller of the dogs allowed.

Because both of them saw the dogs as property.  Not as sentient beings who deserve respect and appropriate care in every moment of their lives.

Barbara says she was willing to pay a vet tech to fly with the dogs, but that wouldn’t have gotten them out of cargo.  Why wasn’t she willing to fly herself to go get the dogs?  Or fly with 10 family members to go get the dogs?  Or even just fly 11 Hungarian vet techs – one with each dog – to Utah to bring the dogs to her?

Barbara says she loves her dogs.  And I believe she does.  But… but but but.  The fact that she was willing to BUY them – and to then use them to breed, and I assume make at least some money from them – means that she does, on some level, see them as her property to do with as she pleases.  The shipping is just an incidental outgrowth of the belief that the dogs are property.

Her thinking is not unusual.   It is THE NORM.  In fact, it is the basis of how animals are treated in the U.S. legal system.

But this thinking does not respect the animal as a conscious creature with its own thoughts and feelings, and which has the right not to suffer needlessly .  That is the definition of a “sentient being.”

For me, treating our animals with respect as the sentient beings they are comes down to acting within a simple basic principle – if I wouldn’t allow a toddler to have a particular experience (e.g., flying in cargo), I wouldn’t let my dog or cat have that experience.

But what about Jack, you say… Karen didn’t follow that principle.  She let Jack and Barry fly in cargo (even though Jack didn’t make it that far).

True enough.  Karen made a HUGE mistake – one that can’t be taken back.  And one that she will never make again.  But it was just that – a mistake.  It was not a mistake on top of a mistake… like the one Barbara Burgett made.  And if Ms. Burgett is breeding these pups (who are now 4 years old), I would argue she is piling mistake on top of mistake on top of mistake.  All because of the belief that animals, at base, are property.

Until we change our thinking about dogs – and cats, and all of our companion animals – situations like this are going to keep happening.  There will be a hundred thousand more “breeder dogs” killed on planes without our knowledge.  A thousand more Jacks will be lost in airports, the search for them minimal if it happens at all.  Countless Toshas and Nahlas will bolt from their crates – some will be lucky and be found safely, others won’t.

So I send love and light out to Hector and the pups who died, and to the 8 survivors… yes, you were treated wrongly in your journey. But, my dear little furry friends, there were problems before you ever got on that plane…


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More Deaths… and a New Voice Standing Up to the Airline Industry

A few days ago I received notice about a new case being filed against Delta Airlines… under the headline “Airline Lets Dog Fry: Lawsuit”, the New York Post reported  on yet another “pets on a plane” debacle.  One dead dog and 10 sick puppies landed at Salt Lake City Airport – and yet, after scouring the Pet Incident Reports for 2008, I found no information.  Hmmm… guess this was another case where these poor pooches weren’t really “pets.”  But then what was up with the lawsuit?  Most puppy mill operations take it as a given that there will be “losses” (read: sick and dead dogs) as a cost of doing business and are prepared to do the write-off.  Clearly, this woman – Barbara Burgett – was not a “typical” dog-shipping client.

After a couple hours of searching online, I was able to locate Barbara Burgett at her home in Utah, where she told me the story of what had happened.  Seems she fell in love with a picture of a French Bulldog named Hector… but Hector lived in Hungary.  After staring at his picture for months, Barbara decided to purchase Hector and 10 of his offspring – she would distribute the pups to her children and grandchildren (and yes, they would be bred), and they would all live happily ever after.  And so it began…

Barbara details the whole story in great depth on her blog, Dogs vs. Delta… but the bottom line is this: it seems the dogs arrived at JFK from Hungary in fine condition.  It was getting from JFK to SLC that killed them.  Barbara told me that Hector – the adult male she had fallen in love with – was dead before they loaded him on the plane.  The pups were all in critical condition by the time they arrived in Utah.  It took many weeks of intensive care for 8 of the 10 to survive, and one of them – now an adult dog – is still in rather delicate condition (he remains Barbara’s personal pet).

Barbara is suing Delta and its contractors (Swissport and Vet Port) for enticement, negligence, breach of contract, and several other charges.  But she knows the money isn’t really important – the beautiful Hector, whose picture she had been staring at for many months, could not be replaced.  But she wants Delta to be held accountable for the promise it broke – the promise that her pets would be treated as “precious”:

This is not Hector – this is Fred… who is available for adoption from French Bulldog Rescue!! Click on the pic for more info!!

“I went to several airline sites that transported dogs, and totally believed Delta’s “pets first” and “precious cargo” advertising and truly believed that my dogs would receive much more than the basic protections and care under the existing laws, in fact, I believed they would be truly treated precious, like how I would care for them, like gold. I called three times to talk to Pet’s first customer service to ask questions and confirm that my dogs would be treated like precious cargo. I so thoroughly believed their enticing advertising statements to be true to the extent of insisting my dogs fly Delta, (contrary to the sellers preference), and had to wait an extra week for my dogs so that they could fly on Delta.”

And this is the problem: those of us who are AMATEURS – people like Jack’s mom Karen, people like Barbara Burgett – believe the airlines’ advertising.  They believe the airlines will take care of their pets as living, sentient beings.  They believe that the airlines staff people whose primary job is to take care  of the pets on a plane.  They believe the airlines CARE about the welfare of the pets on their planes.

And those beliefs are what makes them AMATEURS.  No disrespect intended.  We are all amateurs an awful lot of the time in life.  But being an amateur in this arena means an animal’s life is at risk.

MOST PEOPLE  don’t know the truth about how pets are treated when they are traveling as checked baggage or cargo.  And the airlines make it mighty difficult to find the truth.  Indeed, even checking the Pet Incident Reports (where Hector and his puppies are NOT listed) reveals little more than the tiniest little bit of the problem.  And there’s a reason for this:  there is BIG MONEY at stake.

Barbara paid $250 PER DOG to have these dogs brought from Hungary.  That’s $2750.  That’s not chump change.

Now, in the U.S., approximately 500,000 puppies are sold in puppy stores… and most of those puppies are shipped to those stores from other states.  If shipping each of those dogs costs just $100 (less than half what Barbara paid for international shipping 4 years ago), that makes commercial shipping of animals in the U.S. a $50,000,000 (yes, that’s $50 MILLION) a year business.  NO WONDER THE AIRLINES DO NOT WANT TO BE PUBLICLY ACCOUNTABLE FOR EVERY PET THAT IS LOST, IS INJURED, OR DIES WHILE IN THEIR CARE.  If people knew how many dogs (and, to a lesser extent, cats) were dying on planes, they would be horrified.

(BTW – Barbara said she looked into having a vet tech fly from Hungary to Utah with the dogs – she was happy to pay round trip airfare – but that wouldn’t have gotten the dogs out of cargo.  So it seemed pointless.  Of course, if a person had been flying with the dogs, the dogs would have been listed on the Pet Incident Report for that month, but that wouldn’t have changed the outcome.)

So, this suit has the potential to open up the discussion in a whole new way.  Let’s wish Barbara well… and let’s see if this can help us make the changes we all want to see made.  Can you help us??  Please SUPPORT THE CAUSE if you can!!!!


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PREVENTION – It’s Just Not *Cute*…

Almost every day, beginning August 26, 2011 (the day after Jack went missing), I have spent some time wishing I had done something different.  Wishing I had INSISTED that I fly out to Cali with Karen, each of us taking one cat under the seat.  Wishing I had gone up to New York to look at her cat carriers myself.  Wishing I had told her to take Jack under the seat and let Barry fly cargo.  Wishing, wishing, wishing… but as the old saying goes, “if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”  I could be riding a whole stableful of horses right now.

But instead, I’ve learned sooooooo much…

  • I’ve learned that airlines really do consider companion animals to be luggage.
  • I’ve learned that there are a whole bunch of different entities that have a voice in if and how lost animals are searched for when they are lost in an airport.
  • I’ve learned that there are a few laws in place to protect animals that are being transported; and like all laws, sometimes they are violated.  These violations seem to have almost no punishment attached to them.
  • I’ve learned that there are an awful lot of people out there that are willing to give their heart to a cat they’ve never met in person.
  • I’ve learned that keeping animals safe when they travel by air is a much bigger and more complex problem than I ever would have imagined.

Now if I had just gone up to NYC and flown with Karen, Barry, and Jack out to Cali, I never would have learned all this.

BUT I DIDN’T.  I DIDN’T PREVENT THE PROBLEM WHEN I COULD HAVE.

So instead of having two anonymous cats living happily in the California sunshine, we now have one poster boy for safety in pet air travel, a Facebook page with 25,000 followers, and a new non-profit  that seeks to make sure Jack is not just another statistic on a “redacted” report to the government.

If I had prevented this from happening all these “exciting” developments wouldn’t have happened.

What is even more important, though –  if I had prevented this from happening, a very frightened Jack wouldn’t have spent 61 days crawling around in the ceiling at JFK airport, hungry and thirsty and alone.

And that is why we keep going on this mission.

Luckily, there is some good news… we have made some progress!  Alaska Airlines did an amazing job looking for (and finding!) Wenty!!  And Byrdie the Rhodesian Ridgeback was retrieved from the runway at La Guardia before tragedy struck!!

And yet, I still think about Jack – and what he went through during the last 73 days of his life –  every day.  And I also think about the dogs that have escaped from their crates and have run out into the world, scared out of their wits, looking for their families, unsafe and – far too often – unlucky.  Vivi.  Nahla.  Tosha (who was a lucky one).

But all those animals give us a focal point.  If our quest is successful – if we keep the animals SAFE – there will be no more focal points.  No more drama, no more “poster kids” like Jack, like Wenty, like Nahla, like Tosha.

GOOD.  I hope, with everything in my body and soul, that we never have to report on another lost dog or cat at an airport ever again.

Unfortunately, without these “poster kids,” it’s hard to make that dream a reality.  It’s hard to convince people to put themselves out there to PREVENT another sad story.

If I ask you to give $10, or $25, or $100 dollars to help keep a sweet kitty or puppy with big eyes and huge ears alive, it’s a pretty easy call.

But if I ask you to donate the same amount to help us print posters that will go in every vet’s office in the U.S., to help pay the fee for a table at a veterinary conference so that we can spread the word about the dangers of air travel to the people who certify that a dog or cat is healthy enough to fly, or to cover expenses for a trip to Washington to really talk to people that can help us create a safer system, weeeeeeeellllllll…

Those things just aren’t CUTE.  And there will be no story with a happy ending.  Because – if this works – there will be no more stories at all.

I am absolutely 100% certain that if all of us don’t think at least a little bit ahead… if we don’t make air travel for animals safe… if we don’t take a stand and say IT IS NOT ALRIGHT TO TREAT ANIMALS LIKE LUGGAGE, what happened to Jack will happen over and over and over again.  And there will be more pretty kitties and darling doggies who will be lost, injured and killed as a result of air travel.  We’ll look at their pictures and we’ll worry or we’ll cry — but ultimately, these fur-kids will be the ones who pay for our unwillingness to think ahead, to think beyond the story of the cute animal in front of us right now.

When we began Where Is Jack? Inc. (“we” are a core group of determined and concerned volunteers, who all met online as a result of Jack’s plight), we drew up a preliminary budget.  We need about $50,000 to do just the basics of what we’re hoping to do in the next year…

  • to go to national and regional veterinary conferences, to talk to vets about the realities of air travel for pets in checked baggage or cargo – since they are the ones who must certify that a dog or cat is healthy enough to fly;
  • to print and distribute posters and information cards in the 50,000 veterinary practices in the U.S.; and
  • to get to DC to work with people who are willing and able to help us make sure what happened to Jack NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.

But WE NEED YOUR HELP to make this happen.  To those of you who have become a member of Where Is Jack? Inc. already,  we thank you.  Please ask all your animal-loving friends to join you in supporting this work!!  And if you haven’t yet become a member…

Remember the 61 days Jack was in the ceiling, hungry and alone.  Remember the 12 days he was in veterinary ICU, with that tube in his nose.

Remember that ultimately, he couldn’t survive his ordeal, and that he is now watching us from the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

Help us print the posters, go to the conferences, and change the laws so that his suffering will never, ever happen again.

It won’t make what Jack went through”worth it,” but at least it won’t make his death another utterly pointless tragedy in the history of animals on planes.