Originally Posted by
LRMErnst
Per United, the dog was supposed to be checked all the way to ORD, without requiring any intervention from my sister. With that in mind, as soon as she turned the dog over to United (who uses United Cargo) it was out of sight, out of mind. She had no reason to believe that she needed to get the dog at SFO. Regarding the bags, she did have to claim those once she landed at SFO, and checked them again into her flight to ORD.
I read this as miscommunication from United. It sounds like the dog was checked all the way through to Chicago, but that it still needed to be claimed in San Francisco and re-checked like a piece of luggage would. Incidentally, I can't imagine why they wouldn't have been able to take the dog out of the carrier at that point.
Indeed, that's what
the CDC says:
Since pets are generally transported as baggage, they go through the same procedures as baggage. If a pet does not require quarantine at the port of entry, then an international traveler would pick up both luggage and the pet at international baggage claim. They would then go through customs and re-check both luggage and the pet for the domestic flight to their final destination.
The USDA/APHIS website doesn't appear to call this out specifically, but this makes intuitive sense to me, as presumably the traveler, not the airline, would be carrying the necessary paperwork (inoculations, etc.).
It sounds like all's well that ends well. I'm glad things worked out for the both of them.
