“I’m leavin’ on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again. Oh babe, I hate to go.”
Years ago, back when I was very new at shipping animals, we had a clutch of ducklings hatch out at our zoo. I was very excited, beyond the usual level of excitement surrounding baby animals, because these ducks belonged to a species that was fairly uncommon in zoos, so it was a nice accomplishment for us. As the ducks grew and matured, I found homes for them at three different facilities around the country. By luck, I was able to book flights for them all on the same day, though on different airlines.
All three airlines initially rejected the ducks and refused
to ship them. All three cited a
different reason.
The first airline refused because they said that the crate
wasn’t adequately covered. The wanted
all open sides and the front to be covered with something - one employee told me that it was to keep
the animal calm, the other told me it was so baggage handlers wouldn’t get
bitten… by a half-pound duck. Frantically,
I drove around until I found a Wal-Mart that was open at 4AM. I ran in and bought some scissors, a bag of
zip-ties, and a roll of screen-door material, then ran back out to the
car. I carefully cut out screen and put
it over all of the exposed areas, fixing it in place with zip-ties. It was flimsy and really didn’t do much to
cover the crate, but the airline employees accepted it. The duck was put on its plane.
The second airline refused because the duck didn’t have food
with it (neither did the first duck, but that airline never mentioned it as a
problem). I argued that it was a
two-hour direct flight, no layover. The
duck wouldn’t eat in that time out of stress from travel. An affixed food dish was one more thing that
it would bang into if it got frightened.
Eventually, they relented, as long as I signed a statement saying that
it was okay that it didn’t have food and that I was sure it would be
alright. The duck was put on its plane.
The third airline refused because the duck was too old. Granted, it wasn’t even sexually mature yet,
but their regulations said that it had to be under a week old to ship. I was baffled. If I’d started the transaction the process on
the day that the duck hatched, I couldn’t have gotten it ready to ship in less
than a week. They were adamant – ducks older
than one week couldn’t fly… never mind the other two ducks I just shipped that
morning. I told them that I had personally
picked up several adult ducks of various species from this same airport
before. They didn’t care. Suddenly, I decided that the hang up was the
word “duck.” I redid the paperwork,
calling the bird a "teal". The duck teal was
put on its plane.
(Later, I found out that this was a rule that was meant for
domestic waterfowl being shipped. I’ve
since learned that 99% of airline animal transport problems can be solved
simply by saying “This is a zoo-to-zoo transport.”)
As I drove back to the zoo in the pre-dawn darkness, the car
thankfully empty of ducks, I let out a huge sigh of relief. Next time, I vowed, would be smoother.
And, in a sense, it was.
I continue to have periodic problems, but each shipment I’ve done, I’ve
learned more about the rules and regulations and gotten better. Sometimes I’ve needed to explain the rules to
the airline employees, many of whom have seldom dealt with an animal shipment
other than a dog or cat, and I’ve been in a position to be the expert – which certainly
felt odd at the time.
A few years later, I visited one of my former ducks at his
new home. It was a beautiful habitat,
and my awkward little duckling had matured into a handsome boy with full adult
plumage. He had a pretty female by his
side, and the keepers were hopeful of ducklings in the future. As stressful as transfers can be (both on the
animals and the transporters), they can also be very satisfying and lead to
happy endings.
If only there had been some way to let that duck know how
close he came to missing his plane.
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