Originally Posted by
flymonthly
Posted on Delta News Hub
here.
Can still bring pets on board or shipped via Delta Cargo (but not guaranteed to be on the pax flight).
As much as this inconveniences people, this is a smart idea. As a retired ramp supv, I had to paperwork on D.O.A. animals. It doesn't happen often (thankfully) and there's a definitive correlation to length of flight and mortality rate.
Of ones that were autopsied (yes, they can autopsy dogs): Most of the time it's because the owner over-sedated them before the flight.
It's quite scary in the cargo bin for a dog. It's completely dark, there's thousands of unknown smells in there with you, it's noisy, bumpy and you're all alone...or worse there's another unknown dog in there with you...
Many (smart) owners would put food/water on the top of their crate (with instructions) so that we (the people who smash your bags) could feed them if they had a long layover somewhere. People would also put leashes and instructions on there, but after we had one get loose, we weren't allowed to let them out. Chasing a dog on the ramp is not fun.
