I didn't take xyzzy's remarks to be callous in any way. It's a very sad and unfortunate truth that many animals die on airplanes, which is why airlines are now required to report those numbers. Most every - if not every - animal welfare organization recommends against traveling by air with pets for this reason.

Part of what I find so objectionable about this case is that CO actually uses their "safe" transport of pets as a marketing tool, yet this happens. The poster simply trusted CO to do what they said they would and to abide by the regulations they agreed to.

BTW, for May 2005 (the most recent available and the first month they started reporting): 4 animals died on commercial planes in the US, two of those on CO (one on AS and the other on US).