WARNING be careful with shipping pups!
 

I never thought this would happen, let alone to me. Lets just say my puppy is lucky to still be alive. Me and my husband had our puppy shipped to us from Texas to Maryland. We didn't think too much of it, just hoped for the best and this wasnt our first time. Actually it is our second time having a puppy shipped. Once again AACargo was used.

We got to the baggage claim office a little early. The flight had been delayed an hour, I'm not sure why. We were in shock when the kennel our puppy was in was handed to us. The kennel had been badly damaged during transport.
No one knows why, all we could think about was if the puppy was okay.
I was so angry. I'am not exagerrating when I say to you that the kennel had a 5-6 inch hole on the top of it and a crack leading to the handle.
I dont know what hit this kennel that hard to do this. My little boy was shaking, scared and I had no answers to what happened. I didnt know what I could or should do. I just knew I wanted to bring my baby home after all he had been through. My little boy weighs 3lbs. This kennel was very durable hard plastic. The impact had to be so hard to do this. I'm so worried about him and if whatever happened could have a long time affect. He is 4 1/2months old.

The manager from there gave me a replacement kennel to bring our boy home in. We live 1 1/2hours away and this is our nearest airport. I feel like I should have done things differently but after spending like 2hours there, getting no answers, my boy shivering, all i could think about was getting him to a calm, comfortable place. I believed this manager when he said he would keep the kennel to photograph and send to Dallas for investigation. Now I feel like maybe I was a fool cause I dnt have the kennel with the damage or pics of my own.
I took our little boy to our vet the next day, which was 2/22. He sounded awful, coughing, gagging and i could feel the congestion. He had xray done and he has fluid in his lungs. Right now we are running our first course of treatment and pray it works. I wanted to post this sooner but been so busy just keeping an eye on him, loving him and medicating him.

What happened to their employees being trained to safely care for the live animal shipments?! It may be a good thing I dnt know who is responsible cause I'd love to choke them. But how can this person have no conscience, no feelings, no heart when he/she realized a living animal was in there and say nothing. Please pray for him...i hope that he is a fighter

:thumbup: Oh! I am sorry your baby had to go through this horrid experience. I know exactly how you feel and can't imagine how I would have reacted if I were before that scene. I hope your puppy surpasses whatever fear this might have caused him and sure hope he recovers soon from his illness.

Thanks For Sharing Your Story...
 

This is why so many breeders DO NOT SHIP puppies. I am so sorry for your lil puppy. How horrified he must had been. We wish him a speedy recovery. :cry:

:littleang
 

I'll pray for you and your new little boy? Have you named him?

I am so sorry to hear about this. It is very difficult to understand how such a thing could happen! I can see why after a couple of hours you would be ready to get home. Yes, it would be nice for you to have your own pictures of the kennel, but don't fret too much about this or blame yourself. Is there a possibility of contacting the manager again and asking for copies of the photos he took - maybe he took digital photos to get them to Texas quickly and he could just email them to you.

Have you spoken to the breeder? I would make sure she is aware of this, if she is shipping pups on a regular basis she needs to know. Also, maybe she can follow up on her end.

Prayers for a healthy, quick recovery!

Yorkiesmiles

Oh, how TERRIBLE!!! I truly hope your little boy will pull through this. How very sad. I don't ship. I know there are many success stories, but I just won't do it. Poor little pup...whatever did that much damage had to have been so scarey and traumatic for him. I hope the little bugger is getting better by the minute. Please keep us updated.

That poor baby must have been terrified ! Good luck with him and at least HE wasn't hurt...I've seen videos of the baggage handlers THROWING the little carriers into planes (WITH a Dog inside) and it was just awful to see...I sure hope that didn't happen to him.....I bet he's so happy to be with you....GOOD Luck with him....He deserves lots of hugs

I am so sorry to hear this.I hope he pulls thru and lives a happy,healthy,life with you.
I just had my first litter of puppies and this is the 3rd time I have heard a horror story about shipping them.I am not going to ship my puppies.

Faith

God bless him. That is one of the reasons I will not ship any of my furbabies.
I have had buyers fly here,pick them up at the airport, let them stay in my home overnight,then back to the airport.
IMO shipping a furbaby is like putting a newborn human baby in a crate & shipping him/her. I don't mean to offend anyone. I know that there are more good stories than bad. I know sometimes that's the only way to get a pup,but it scares me to put one of mine on a plane. Please,don't anyone take offense. :)

The poor little thing! Thats so frightening and horrible! :eek: Saying a little prayer that your "niblet" is ok....

I'd going to get my pup locally or fly and pick the pup up myself and have him under my seat on the flight....this is the defining horror story...I'm never going to trust someone else with the physical and emotional health of my young pup. There are just way too many people out there who dont give a S---!

Francie

P.S. I wouldn't be satisfied with a "pat on the head...we'll check into it" from that Manager...I would raise HELL!




Francie

That is a scary story. I would definity make sure who is responsible for that kind of treatment. Have you dealt with this breeder before? I understand that the trauma of shipping can be terrible for a puppy but is it possible that he may have had the congestion going on before he was shippped? What does the vet think? Or do you think that he was outside during this "delay"? I've had two dogs shipped in all the way from Germany, two seperate times, and each time they have been totally rarin' to go when the crate was opened, no problems or delays at all. I know if I was a breeder there would be no way that I would ship my puppies either ...

How scary! I've never shipped a pup but had a lady fly to pick one up. I hope that he'll be okay. How scary for him and for you! :(

Big hugs sent to your little one ((((()))))

airline
 

You most certainly can put 100% of blame for the damaged carrier on the airline. If the pup was injured in the carrier, that is their fault also. The symtoms your puppy is showing now does not sound like the fault of the airline. Sounds like kennel cough, pnumonia, viral infection etc..these conditions have an incubation period of about 7/14 days..so he no doubt left the breeder with a brewing problem, perhaps not, but dropping a carrier or something hitting it does not cause these symtoms...best wishes for your boy.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I've called the office several times and never able to reach the manager. Its like a conspiracy. I emailed a few places and finally did get one reply. Here it is:

Dear Mrs. xxxxxxx

American Airlines transports a large number of live animals each day; and it is imperative that we provide the utmost care and respect for these shipments. The handling of your puppy in this manner is not typical for American Airlines Cargo.

We are dedicated to providing the highest quality of service in our cargo operation, and our goal is to satisfy every customer, every time.

The management in the stations involved have been made aware of this situation and measures will be taken to prevent any future recurrence.

Sincerely,
xxxxxxxx
Lead Agent
AA Cargo Live Animal Specialty Desk

I dont think anything will really satisfy me. Its all been done. It just should have never happened.

I'd have to agree that something had to be underlying for him to be this sick. My vet just said the shipping would have stressed him more and brought it out.
The breeder has apologized. I did notify her of the shipping situation and she has also contacted them.
Right now since we cant prove whether or not he was injured, no sign of it, my main priority is getting him back to good health. Hes doing okay, still sick but tries to play on occasion and bonds with us.
He doesnt seem to really want to eat, which concerns me. I dnt know whether i should offer him some wet food, or wet mixed with dry? I would hate to upset his tummy as well. I'm giving him nutri-stat 2x a day but even that I have to force him to take. I find it strange when my other dogs love it. Hes drinking water though.

I'll attach a pic soon and eventually we'll need a name :)
He goes back to the vet for a recheck on 3/1.

Poor little Dude. Hope he is feeling better now. They are so resilient, chances are he will recover from the bad flight alot quicker that you will get over being angry.

Hope you are able to find some resolution. I would be so angry I would want to start knocking heads -- starting at the top and working my way down! :mad:

Pic
 

Heres a pic of him resting after his long ordeal, taken the same day he arrived.

What a beautiful little boy!!! Wow, I would be so :mad: that someone would be so careless with my little one!

:aimeeyork
 

What a doll. Thank you for the update and the cute pix. I'll continue to pray for a speedy recovery. I adopted my dogs from my daughter's dance teacher, but I believe she had both dogs shipped from different breeders. I thought that sounded ok, but Your story will definitely make me think before I buy dog out of state -- I think I would drive/fly to pick up this very precious cargo after hearing how badly his kennel was damaged.

Enjoy your day with your new furbaby!

:aimeeyork :) Yorkiesmiles

That's so awful I don't know how the airline could be so terrible....oh wait... yes I do. My chi was supposed to be shipped from way down south to way up here in Canada, but then the day of shipping the airline wouldn't ship him here, so I was notified last minute that he would be shipped to the closest US airport (which is 2 hours away). So then I get to the airport and I'm waiting and waiting, asking where the heck my dog was, "Hmm, oh I'm sorry miss the airplane that he was supposed to transfer onto was at its weight limit so he's coming on another flight" Excuse me!! Another flight, the dog and the kennel together weigh 5 lbs!! My poor baby was delayed for 2 hours at his transfer airport. This is at the begining of December!!! Who knows where he was kept between flights. I was so mad. Needless to say the stress of the 8 hour ordeal left my baby sick so he was left at the vet for 3 days & 2 nights. Airlines don't care about the animals they ship, once they have your money.

Anyways, I'm sorry that this happened to you and your baby, he sure is a cutie pie!

How terrible!!!

Oh that is awful! Thank God he is ok! He is such a handsome little fellow. :)

Sounds like almost the same thing happened to me about 20 years ago. Altho it was a regular commuter Amer. Airlines flight. There was a man (in his 60's) sitting next to me on the flight. We were leaving Houston enroute to Los Angeles. It was in December, so of course there was bad weather. We were forced to sit at the end of the runway for almost 8 hours!! This man had just gotten out of the hospital after having quadripple by-pass surgery. He was supposed to take medication every 2 hours! So here we sit at the end of the runway, not being allowed to have any beverages or food. Their reason was it would cause a problem having to pick up all foods and beverages if we were able to depart quick. The medication (pills) the man was supposed to take were LARGE pills, that must be taken with water. The stewardesses (way back then, they were still called stewardesses!!), refused to let the man have anything to drink. I sat there dumbfounded. After he had missed the 3rd time he was to take his medication, I finally went bonkers! I demanded to speak with whoever was in charge!! I didn't care who it was. I just went off. Finally got to talk to a normal person (he said that he was the co-pilot) and told him about the problem. He went to the man and asked him to go with him. The co-pilot took the man into a closed off section of the plane and allowed him to have water to take his meds. Then assured both of us that we would be getting notified via mail, that this would never happen to anyone else again. I did get the notification, and I did receive a roundtrip flight to wherever I needed to go (within the 48 connected states). But I still hve never flown American Airlines again. They say things will never happen again, but it's things that should never happen in the first place that bother me! WOW, this is long, sorry.
Suz

Oh wow! I am so so so sorry to hear about what happened! And PLEASE keep us updated on how he is doing! Fortuantely I had a fantastic shipping experience with my newest baby, but no to say I was a nervous wreck from the second the breeder called and said she was at the airport til the very second I had her in front of my eyes. I did almost contimplate flying myself to pick her up, but the money for that and with a hotel just wasn't going to happen at the time. Keep in touch with that manager and hassle him til they find out what happened. That's awful! I'll be praying for your little one.

First of all Congratulations on your new puppy!!! He is absolutely adorable :)

I can't believe the airline was so irresponsible...Poor little thing must have been scared to death! No answers or any sort of explanation? They have to have some sort of idea of what happened and they just didn't want to tell you...How terrible.

At least you were able to get your little one home to calm down a bit after that horrible plane ride and to the vet.

I will pray that he gets better soon and that he doesn't have any damage from the plane ride.

That is horrible what happened to your puppy. I hope and pray the puppy will be fine and no long term damage has taken place. I also hope what ever the bug is that he has will soon be gone with the medicine he is on.

I read that when shipping live animals airline, train whatever that 10% are injured or killed and that 3% are lost or stolen! How do you lose a dog on a plane????? But it does happen and often. Well I did'nt have a dog lost but we went to ohio to visit last year and I had a brand new playpen, I was sitting on the plane by baggage and seen the playpen go on but when we landed they could'nt find it anywhere, I was SOOOOO mad, and because I did'nt have the receipt, by the way it was a 300 dollar playpen an eddie bauer one, they gave me a 50 dollar redemption coupon. I would never trust my animal to them!

I know of several people on this site who have shipped or received shipped puppies without incident but in my humble opinion, pay the airfare or drive and get your furbaby. There are plenty of good breeders in every state, it takes research. Now, for those that breed, I know, it is sometimes necessary but if it isn't, why take the risk? I'm sorry this happened.

Im so glad to see that your baby is looking good and comfy at home with you..

Poor little guy, needs alot of lovin,,,, I would be getting in touch with both the breeder and the airlines. Dont let them get away with this. If everyone that this happens to just lets these creeps get away with it, It will never stop and someday it will be at the expense of the puppy. And thats just not right.


Good luck with him, and i am sending him hugs from penny and me..