Land of the paranoid
 

Hi All

I just wanted to share what happened to my niece.

My niece got married to an American at the beginning of October. We are Australians. She was moving to Houston and of course was taking her baby (Chinchilla Cat) with her.

They flew from Brisbane into LAX and collected her little fluff ball. Then had to go back through security to catch her flight to Houston.

She gets to the screeners and said to them i have never travelled with a animal before. She was screened then had to get her baby and go through the scanner. And now the funny part. Her baby was padded down and swiped for explosives!!! Are you serious!!!! She just paid $2500 to fly her baby to the good old USA why the hell would she blow her baby up!

She said the TSA agents were very nice but OMG. Talk about paranoia.

I'm not suprised that the cat and its carrier were checked for exposure to explosive residue. My daughter's wheelchair is randomly wiped down at checkpoints for explosive residue testing and I certainly don't have any intent of blowing her up. :p

$2500 seems awfully expensive to fly a pet. Did the cat have its own seat assignment?

If a terrorist could spend $2500 to slip a bomb past TSA they would be happy to.

Remember, it's not a cat, it's a baby.

I'm sure there's more in that cost than just airline transport. Medical certificates, probably an expensive quarantine period, etc...

And Loren just proved that America is broken. Tell us Loren, how many "terrorist" have the TSA thwarted?

A cat is not a bomb. A dead cat COULD be used as a bomb.

So could a live one. Live animals have been used to smuggle drugs, for example.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23250977

I'm not sure enough explosives could be placed in a live cat to present a real threat to an aircraft, though. It'd likely just look a lot like the cat scene in "The Boondock Saints."

The point is her logic is meaningless in proving the cat isn't a threat.

I do agree that the cat isn't a bomb but the fact she spent that money to bring it isn't evidence of that.

A pregnant cat can deliver a pound of kittens. Thus a cat can hold a pound inside it. A pound of HE can bring down a plane if it's placed right.

Land of the paranoid
 

I challenge any TSA clerk out there to try to pat down my 13 year old female tabby.

So any person could be the carrier of a plane killing butt bomb.

That's where I have my doubts. I don't think it'd be possible to get it "placed right" inside a cat.

After all, there was the guy with the pound of HE in his rectum that didn't manage to kill the guy he was standing right next to... Abdullah Hassan al-Asiri.

The body seems to damp the effects rather well.

Yes "they" will, as soon as they can figure out how to.......