Dog’s death prompts pet safety plea for planes

Animal activists appealed Thursday to Chinese aviation authorities to improve conditions in which live animals are transported on flights after a much loved pet dog died in mysterious circumstances on or after a flight from Xining, Qinghai Province, to Beijing on August 6.

Eighty-one animal protection agencies from across the nation sent letters to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and China Southern Airlines, the airline company involved, on Thursday.

Liu Huili, the chief instigator of the letters and program manager at environmental NGO Green Beagle, told the Global Times that the dog's unexplained death had drawn much attention from animal rights supporters.

Comparing the Chinese standards for live animal transportation with that of foreign airlines, they found the latter is more strictly regulated, said Liu.

"We hope the CAAC will set stricter standards on how to transport pets by air to eliminate the chance of the animal dying," said Liu.

Zhao Nan, owner of the deceased Golden Retriever named Mars, told the Global Times that she has filed a lawsuit against China Southern, which was accepted by Chaoyang district court on August 23. There is no trial date yet.

When Zhao arrived in Beijing after her flight, her pet was missing from the crate. The next day China Southern found Mars, but he was already dead, China Business News reported on August 27. The airline refused to give any explanation as to how the dog died.

On August 17, a Pekingese named Apple was found dead after another China Southern flight from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province to Dalian, Liaoning Province, said China Business News. The report claimed that airline passengers had seen pet crates "being thrown" at airports around China.

The crate Mars was traveling in was damaged, said Cai Chunhong, Zhao's lawyer. They guess that perhaps it had been dropped or handled badly.

Crates used to transport animals by air in China should be up to a national standard. Mars's crate was up to the standards, and was a Japanese brand, said Cai.　

Mary Peng, from Beijing-based International Center for Veterinary Services, regularly holds seminars giving advice to owners about how to transport pets by air. She said that the risks to the animal cannot be 100 percent eliminated.

"When the ground temperature is over 30 C, there is a high risk of physical problems for the pets during the process of their being uploaded to the plane. That is why some airline companies don't allow pets onboard from mid-May to mid-September," she said.

Airline companies should also educate the passengers, and should learn from other airlines about best practice and make stricter standards, she said.

US airline Delta stipulates that temperatures at the point of origin or destination must be between -12 C and 29.4 C or animal transportation is forbidden, the letters quoted the guidelines of the company as saying.

By contrast, China Southern's guidelines are less detailed, and state that passengers should hold full responsibility for the animals. China Southern will not accept responsibility for problems not caused by the company, such as the animal's illness, injury or death.

Both the CAAC and China Southern could not be reached Thursday.

But an operator from the airline's service hotline said that only aircraft whose cargo compartment has an oxygen supply could transport animals.

"One passenger is only allowed to transport one animal during a flight, but there is no regulation about the maximum number of animals a flight could carry," said the operator.

She also added that the pet crates are provided by passengers themselves, and the airline signs a contract with the animal's owner.　

In January, a poodle named Ge Ge was shot dead at Haikou airport, after a flight from Beijing on Hainan Airlines. The airport claimed the dog escaped from its crate on the luggage carousel, and was shot as it posed a safety risk.