LOS ANGELES - HEATHER Lombardi paid nearly US$300 (S$371) to fly Snickers, an 11-week-old, 3-pound hairless kitten, from Utah to Connecticut in climate-controlled air cargo.
By the time kitten and owner united, Snickers was icy cold and couldn't move her head or paws, Ms Lombardi said. The kitten died a short time later.
'I feel so guilty. We sat there for nearly an hour. If I'd known, I would have thrown a fit,' said Ms Lombardi, who was flying Snickers home from a breeder. 'We just sat there. We had no idea she was dying.'
The Department of Transportation tracks animal deaths in transit, but no one keeps tabs on how many die of cold or heat in cargo holds or elsewhere, said veterinarian Louise Murray, vice-president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in New York City.
Heat deaths are more common, Ms Murray said, but because winter weather has been extreme this year, Murray is sure death rates have climbed. Lombardi's US$289.94 cargo ticket on Delta Air Lines included US$70 to make sure Snickers was taken off the plane quickly. But Ms Lombardi said it took 50 minutes to get the cat off the plane.
Delta Flight 738 to Hartford arrived at 8.40pm local time, when the National Weather Service said it was 10 deg C. Delta spokesman Susan C. Elliott said she couldn't talk about specifics because the cat's death was under investigation. -- AP
Source: The Straits TImes
A Half Decade Later
9 months ago
