Family and close friends know that I love animals. I am a “cat mom” of two felines. So, when I read that a cat who had been lost for 61 days and later found had to be euthanized, I wept.
For more than two months I had followed on Facebook the saga of Jack the cat, a 7-year-old café-au-lait-colored Norwegian Forest cat traveling with his “brother” Barry in the cargo hold of an American Airlines plane. On Sunday night, November 6, Jack’s extensive skin wounds were too difficult to treat, and the feline had to be put to sleep.
More than 25,000 fans read about the ordeal of Jack and his “mom” Karen Pascoe, who was moving from New York to California for a new job. After Pascoe checked Jack and Barry in to American Airlines as cargo on August 25, Jack escaped the carrier’s baggage center at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Hurricane Irene reached the northeastern states, causing travel chaos.
Pascoe’s sister Mary Beth Melchior created a Facebook page “Jack the Cat is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK,” which eventually earned more than 25,000 followers. “Friends of Jack” searched the American Airlines terminal searching for Jack but finding other homeless cats. The searchers then found “forever homes” for those felines.
On October 25, two months after he disappeared, Jack fell through a ceiling tile in the customs area at JFK’s Terminal 8, according to the Los Angeles Times. He was taken to a veterinarian in Queens to be treated for malnutrition.
After his condition improved a bit, Jack took a turn for the worse and had to be removed from his suffering.
Some of the Facebook page followers want a law where a global positioning system (GPS) device would be on every animal that travels in cargo. After I initially supported it, I changed my mind after a post from my sister Black Woman Blogging. Furry family members should not travel in cargo. They are treated like luggage and stored with them. As BWB said, “No one can hear your pet scream.”
If I had to travel with my cats Tuffy and Diva, I would rather drive and find pet-friendly lodging than subject them to the indignity and danger of flying in cargo. I have a somewhat “psychic” relationship with my cats, where I can “hear” them crying if they’re in trouble or pain.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram quoted the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which stated domestic airlines reported 39 pet deaths, 13 pet injuries, and 5 lost pets in 2010. The newspaper quoted American spokesman Tim Smith, who said the carrier hired a pet detective and searched many times at the airport over the two months.
There are options for animal lovers who need to transport their pets cross country. There is a company based in Delray Beach, Fla., called Pet Airways. Instead of flying in the cargo hold, pets travel in the main cabin with a pet attendant on board caring for them during their journey. Although the service hasn’t reached Northern California yet, Pet Airways serves eight airports, including Los Angeles. If it comes to San Francisco, it’s on like Donkey Kong!
There have to be a better ways for our furry friends to travel with us and not be treated like luggage. I pray that Jack’s journey across the Rainbow Bridge won’t be for naught.
Writing Diva
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