everywhere_ex_lax

Had the pleasure of sitting much closer than I would have liked last night flying IAD-SFO to a traveler carrying two cats in carry-on fabric carriers under his seat. Being allergic to cats, my eyes were puffy and throat itching and dripping within the first hour of flight.

The fun didn't really start, however, until the cats had soiled their containers around hour 2, of the flight. At that point, cat man took one cat at a time to two separate lavatories, spending approximately 15 minutes in each apparently playing with the cats and cleaning out their litter into the trash . . . and leaving smears of cat poop on the push-down lid to the waste basket, and the smell of a litter box in the lavs for the rest of the flight. This was repeated approximately an hour before landing.

The best part, however, came midway through the flight when one of the cats escaped its container not once but twice and ran throughout the cabin. The first time other passengers, though annoyed, generally remained civil, with several complaining to the flight attendants. The flight attendants admonished the passenger to keep the containers closed and leave the cats in the containers once the cat was recaptured.

The second time the cat escaped, however (cat man didn't want to close the containers all the way because then he couldn't talk to and touch the cats) people were more fed up and other passengers came closer to taking the problem into their own hands, as cat man seemed to think the whole thing was cute. The flight attendants acted as if their hands were tied as to handling cat man, and at 35,000 feet with a full flight, there wasn't much they could do to accommodate other inconvenienced passengers.

The flight attendants seemed surprised that there were pets on the flight - is that something that would normally be listed on the manifest?

Given the large chance of inconvenience to a great number of passengers compared to the small convenience to the pet owner of having his precious kitten next to him for the flight, what's the rationale for letting pets on board at all?

Do most other airlines allow the practice? Do passengers for whom sitting close to a pet is a major inconvenience have any recourse? When cat man boards right before the door closes, it's not like passengers can contact a gate agent to be moved.

NB - I didn't find anything that looked on topic from my own quick search of past forum discussions, but please feel free to point me in the right direction if this has been beaten to death on here before.