Traveling with a pet can create quite the dilemma. Many pet owners are reluctant to leave their pets behind when they travel, but traveling by air can be both stressful and, at times, dangerous for pets. People with dogs too big to travel in the passenger compartment usually have the worst fears because their pet must travel as “baggage.” Not only are the owners then out of touch with their pets for what could be many hours, they also have to worry about lengthening the trip even further because of the time that the airlines require them to be dropped off, what type of conditions the pet will be traveling in, including whether the temperature will be properly controlled, whether light will be provided, etc. In addition, what happens when you have to change planes and have a tight connection? Will your animal make it? Or will he be left behind and get lost or worse?

Recently, the safety of even those dogs small enough to travel with their owners in the passenger cabin has been called into question. It was reported that United Airlines required a passenger to put her dog carrier in the overhead bin and the dog subsequently died during the flight. United has taken responsibility but also took the position that, perhaps due to a communication breakdown, the flight attendants were not aware that the carrier contained a live animal. The intense press coverage this case received generated much discussion about where the blame should lie and whether more could be done to make airline travel safer for pets.

The federal Animal Welfare Act provides some protection for animals during air travel. Carriers are prohibited from accepting animals in cages and other shipping containers that do not meet minimum standards for size, ventilation, strength, sanitation and design. Dogs and cats must not be brought to the airline for shipping more than four hours before departure. If puppies or kittens less than 16 weeks of age are in transit more than 12 hours, food and water must be provided. Older animals are only required to have food at least every 24 hours and water at least every 12 hours. The regulations also require that a cargo area being used to transport pets be heated or cooled to maintain an ambient temperature that ensures the health and well being of the animals. see 9 C.F.R. 3.13-3.18. These regulations, while helpful, obviously do not ensure that an animal will arrive safely to its destination.

Until recently, the number of animals who were lost, injured or died while in the custody of airlines was hidden in reports covering “mishandled baggage” that airlines are required to file with the Department of Transportation. Individual stories of distraught pet owners encountering seemingly callous airline employees would make the news on occasion. In 1996, the case of Boris, a basenji-boxer mix helped to change the law. Boris escaped from the baggage handlers at LaGuardia Airport, leaving behind only a bloody travel crate. Boris' owner reported that, when she asked the baggage attendant for help, he handed her a baggage claim form and told her to call Delta's hub in Atlanta. Boris was found over six weeks later, in a back yard in Queens, injured and dehydrated. When the airline failed to reimburse the owner for her vet bills, she persuaded legislators to sponsor “Boris's Bill,” parts of which became the “Safe Air Travel for Animals Act.” The act imposed two new obligations on airlines in their handling of live animals. It required airlines to submit monthly reports on any incidents involving the loss, injury or death of an animal during transport. It also provided that the Department of Transportation would work with airlines “to improve the training of employees with respect to the air transport of animals and the notification of passengers of the conditions under which the air transport of animals is conducted,” Section 41721(b). The portions of Boris's Bill that did not make it into the final law would have required airlines to increase compensation to travelers for pets who were lost or died during air travel and would have required that airplanes being retrofitted for fire prevention also be retrofitted to improve ventilation and temperature control in the cargo hold to increase the safety of transporting animals. Thus, airlines were not required to actually improve safety for pets; they were required only to report on injuries and deaths.

The Department of Transportation did not issue regulations to enforce the new reporting requirement until 2005. That information is now included in the department's Air Travel Consumer Reports. A review of the incidents documented since airlines began filing the mandatory reports would strike fear in the hearts of most pet owners. Pet carriers have been dropped and run over by forklifts. Dogs and cats have been left on the tarmac for hours or even days. Animals have been put on the wrong flight (as was also reported recently when a dog bound for Kansas ended up in Japan). Animals have escaped and never been found. Between the filing of the first report in 2005 through March 2017, 379 animals were reported to have died during air travel, 208 were injured and 56 were lost.

These numbers show only part of the picture when it comes to airline travel for animals. Until 2015, airlines only needed to report losses with respect to pets, which would exclude animals used in exhibitions including zoos and circuses, animals destined to be used in laboratories and dogs and cats shipped by breeders. After the death of seven puppies being shipped by a breeder via American Airlines, the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a petition with the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration seeking to amend the regulations so that the monthly reporting would include all animals. The department responded and did amend the regulation to include all warm blooded and cold blooded animals shipped as pets and all dogs and cats even if in commercial shipments. Still excluded are animals other than dogs and cats who are not “pets” including those being transported to pet stores, research facilities, zoos, circuses and any other commercial establishment.

This omission makes analysis of airlines' performance in providing safe travel for animals difficult. Airlines file annual reports stating the total number of animals transported. Since that number is significantly larger than the number covered by their reporting obligations under the act, it is impossible to calculate the percentage of animals who do not arrive safely at their destination. Indeed, the combined obligation to report the total number of animals transported but only a subset of those animals who were lost, injured or died during transport, could make it appear that the percentage of animals harmed or killed during transport is significantly lower than it actually is.

Even if reporting obligations were expanded, that does not change the actual risks presented by air travel for animals. Allowing an animal to travel in the cargo hold of a plane, the only option for owners of dogs too large to fit under an airplane seat, remains a dangerous option. The Humane Society of the United States advises against traveling with your pet on a commercial airline unless the animal is small enough to fit under the seat in the carrier. If that is not an option, professional pet movers provide a possible alternative. And, if your pet does fit under the seat, by all means, do not listen to anyone who tells you to put him in the overhead bin.

Penny Conly Ellison is an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, teaching animal law and ethics, and a member of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania SPCA.