Bulldogs and flying

[wvlady1965]

Has anyone ever shipped a bully by air? What airlines will fly bullies and who is the best? Getting ready to adopt and it's over a 16 hour drive so would rather fly him. What are your suggestions?

 

[Lauren31287]

Here is my two cents...unless you absolutely have no other choice, I wouldn't. I have never done this but I have a family member who adopted one farther away and they were able to do a courier type service so someone drove the dogs to their destination so they could stop to feed them and what not. I know there are airlines now that fly the dogs in the cabins so that could be a better option but a very pricey one. To just put them in cargo like most airlines is not a good idea because they may not make it. I have heard too many horror stories of all kinds of dogs dying that way because it gets very hot...never mind the bulldogs & pugs who already have a hard time breathing. Good luck! I am sure others will be along shortly to give you advice!

 

[dalmatina38]

The majority of airlines won't fly animals during set times and this time of year is extremely difficult because cargo usually isn't as cool as the cabin. If it were me, I won't take the chance, I would go ahead and make the drive; look at it as bonding opportunities....... great time to get to know your bully one on one. Most of them love to travel, mine will jump at every opportunity to sit in the front seat with that cold air-conditioning going straight up their nose. Make sure you take some febreeze with you just in case there is a little bully gas happening......Mine can clear a truck in two seconds flat. Good luck on your travels, take lots of pictures!! Also, most hotels are pet friendly these days, it costs a few dollars extra but well worth it.

 

[2BullyMama]

I am not sure if any will fly Bulldog or similar breed with flat face. There are road transportation companies that you can hire to drive him to you @Davidh or [MENTION=2152]kim n the guys[/MENTION] might be able to provide a company name

 

[Davidh]

I would never never ever ever fly a bully in the cargo hold. You are taking a BIG chance of losing your bull. There are good ground transport companies out there. Let me know if you want their info on the one we use. Airlines will only let puppies under 25 lbs. of weight or service dogs fly in the cabin with you.

 

[Vikinggirl]

Everyone gave you super excellent advice. It is not recommended to fly bulldogs, because of their breathing problems, and the cargo areas are not temperature controlled, the temperatures are either way too hot, or freezing. Also I know a lot of airlines have a policy that they won't transport certain breeds of dogs, and bulldogs are one of them due to too any deaths of the dogs. Your better off to make the drive yourself, or find a transport service that can deliver your puppy. The stress on the pup could at the very least make it sick, or maybe kill it. I say it's not worth it.


December 11, 2008, 2:13 PM
Traveling with Your Bulldog? Airline Death Stats Show Pups at Risk
Article
Comments (34)




Yes, it seemed strange to us at first too. Each month the Department of Transportation reports on events involving the loss, injury or death of pets on airlines — including links to airlines’ incident reports. Sometimes these reports read like the succinct plot summary of a children’s book.


For example, take the saga of Katya, a cat who managed to escape from her kennel while traveling on Northwest from Seattle to Chicago’s O’Hare:


“Passenger checked four cats in four kennels. On arrival one kennel was empty. Cat was found later same day at SEA airport and returned to owner next day 07Aug2008. Owner reported Katya had cut lip, chipped tooth and grease on back.”


Other stories, such as the tale of Bradley, an English bulldog, don’t have such happy endings. On Oct. 13, Bradley was traveling with his owners on United Flight 87 from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Alas, Bradley never made it to paradise — at least not on earth. The dog “was discovered deceased upon arrival of aircraft. No signs of distress on the animal and kennel was intact,” the report said.


Bradley’s passing rang a bell. In July, another bulldog expired during an Alaska Airlines flight from Reagan National to LAX. “This appears to be a natural death,” read the report. “There is no evidence to suggest that the airline’s handling contributed to the animal’s condition in any way.” Then, in May, a three-year-old “English Bulldog Mixed” was found dead on arrival at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport after being unloaded from a Continental flight. “He may have gotten excited during transportation causing him to become dyspneic resulting in a cardiovascular collapse,” the report said. That same month, still another English bulldog was found dead after being unloaded from cargo on United flight from LAX to Boston’s Logan.


More English bulldogs died during flights in March and in October and November 2007. In the latter case, a 14-month-old “Bulldog Terrier” was found dead after a Delta flight from Atlanta to Buffalo, N.Y. “Autopsy report indicates the dog had a preexisting heart condition. The stress of the flight possibly caused his death,” the report said. (Between October 2007 and October 2008 — the last month for which data is available — 30 pets were reported to have died in transit. So by our count, bulldogs alone, represented at least 23% of the deceased.)


Of course, we don’t know how many bulldogs were safely transported over this time. But it turns out that bulldogs — and other short-nosed, known as brachycephalic, breeds such as Boston terriers, boxers and pugs — are especially susceptible to problems during flight. According to an August 2005 story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “many airlines refuse to carry [short-nosed dogs] during the summer because the higher temperatures make it harder for such animals to breathe.”


Given the deaths of Bradley and the others, we wonder whether airlines should refuse to take such breeds more often. Or at least make sure owners know the risks. For more information on traveling with your pet, check out this site from the American Veterinary Medical Association.




Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
Louie York with his owner, Rusty Rueff, before his Pet Airways flight from Republic Airport in East Farmingdale, N.Y.
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
Published: October 6, 2011
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When Louie York flew cross country on Sept. 15, his route from New York was anything but direct. First came a stop in Chicago and then one in Omaha, where he endured a six-hour layover.
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Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
Louie York waiting to be boarded.
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Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
Aaron Hung dropping off Plato for a flight. Pet Airways has flown roughly 4,900 dogs; one-quarter were brachycephalic breeds.
Next were Denver, Phoenix and, finally, Los Angeles, 18 hours later. The capper: a seven-hour drive home to the San Francisco Bay Area.


Such is life for travelers like Louie, a French bulldog whose breed has been banned from most commercial airlines — not for the dogs’ bark or bite, but because so many have died in flight.


Many airlines now forbid brachycephalic breeds, also known as short-faced or snub-nosed dogs, from their planes. That has caused great inconvenience for the owners of the affected dogs, which include popular breeds like pugs and bulldogs, but has opened a niche for a few companies that cater specifically to pet travel.


Pet Jets, which began offering charter plane service for pets two years ago, said these breeds made up about a quarter of their passengers. Pet Airways, a two-year-old airline dedicated to transporting pets, has seen a similar trend: of the roughly 4,900 dogs it has flown, about 25 percent were brachycephalic breeds.


On a recent Pet Airways flight from Republic Airport in East Farmingdale, N.Y., 5 of the 15 canine passengers were brachycephalic breeds, including Louie. In the terminal, wealthy and middle-class pet owners crossed paths. The scene at the check-in counter was certainly unusual: a bulldog and pug panted as they waited behind Louie and his owner, Rusty Rueff.


“We always make a joke: He flies private and we fly commercial,” Mr. Rueff’s wife, Patti Rueff, said.


Mr. Rueff handed over Louie’s blue blanket and a plastic bag with his dog food and Pepcid AC. A Pet Airways worker gave Louie his boarding pass: a paper collar, wrapped around the dog’s neck. Louie responded by sending heart-wrenching glances toward his owner, seeming to protest his abandonment. But Mr. Rueff, who was rushing to catch his own flight on American Airlines that night, said the dog’s well-being outweighed any feelings of guilt, even with the $840 price for a one-way cross-country ticket.


“If he throws up or gets sick or goes bonkers, there’s going to be a human being there,” Mr. Rueff said. “That makes it worth it for us; we’re paying for peace of mind.”


Airlines have always had varying restrictions on animal travel. There are a few carriers, like Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Sun Country, that still allow brachycephalic breeds to fly in cargo. And most animals are generally allowed to fly in the passenger cabin if they weigh less than 20 pounds, as some French bulldogs and many pugs do.


But the clear trend among commercial airlines is toward an outright ban on brachycephalic breeds.


American Airlines banned brachycephalic breeds of dogs and cats shortly after four bulldogs died on its planes in a three-month period in 2010. Delta stopped accepting French, English and American bulldogs this year, after three bulldogs died from January to March.


United and Continental Airlines, which had two bulldogs die in their care this spring, banned brachycephalic dog breeds from flying during the summer, lifting the restriction on Sept. 16, when temperatures began to drop.


According to the federal Agriculture Department, 189 animals died on commercial flights from June 2005 to June 2011; of those animals, 98 — more than half — were brachycephalic breeds.


The breeds, which also include Persian and Himalayan cats, have smaller openings to their noses and elongated soft palates on the roofs of their mouths, which make breathing more difficult for them, veterinarians said. Those breathing problems can be magnified in stressful situations like air travel, and further exacerbated in extreme heat.


The airlines’ growing no-fly lists have set off a debate between pet owners and veterinarians about whether these dogs should fly at all.


Some veterinarians who have operated on the dogs to open up their nasal passages said that surgery could help somewhat with breathing and perhaps make flying safer. Other veterinarians refuse to sign medical paperwork allowing the dogs to fly in cargo.


“I’m seeing more people who want to travel with their pets in the last 10 years,” said Amy Attas, a veterinarian who runs a house call service, City Pets. “The first conversation I have with people is, ‘Why are you bringing your dog in the first place?’ Every veterinarian has known: don’t fly a brachycephalic dog, because dogs regulate their body temperatures through their noses.”


Many bulldog owners only drive their dogs. Robert Rodenski, president of the Bulldog Club of America, said the club encouraged owners to rent motor homes and drive to their conferences, even if they were traveling cross country. For the club’s November show in Vienna, Va., Mr. Rodenski said some bulldog owners from California were sharing campers and splitting the driving.


“Our folks have gone more to motor homes,” Mr. Rodenski said, describing how his fellow bulldog owners travel. “They realize that there are problems with shipping any dog on an airline.”


Even university mascots are not immune.


Butler University’s 63-pound mascot, an English bulldog named Butler Blue II, flew twice in 2010. But his owner, Michael Kaltenmark, said that on the first flight, from Indianapolis to a Duke University men’s basketball game in New Jersey, the bulldog traveled in the pressurized cabin of a Southwest Airlines plane chartered by the team. On the second flight, to a Final Four game in Houston, the dog flew in the cabin on a private flight.


“If we had to fly him in the cargo hold, we would have just driven,” Mr. Kaltenmark said.


One of the nation’s best-known bulldog mascots, Uga, from the University of Georgia, seems to be coping with the new restrictions. Uga typically flies on short-haul private flights to football games, and when he flies commercial, he uses Delta, his owner Sonny Seiler said.


Even though Delta has banned most bulldogs, an airline spokesman, Anthony Black, said Uga could fly in the cabin because the airline classified him as a “high-profile animal,” like the Target mascot, Bullseye. (There have been eight English bulldogs deemed worthy of being an Uga; the previous one died after only three months on the throne.)


But Uga’s handler must buy first-class tickets for himself and the dog to fly.


In any case, Mr. Seiler said he had options for Uga, whose role is currently being filled by a stand-in, Russ.


“If they felt uncomfortable, then doesn’t matter,” Mr. Seiler said of Delta’s new policy. “We will fly him in another way. We will fly him in a private plane.”

 

[wvlady1965]

thank you everyone for the wonderful advice. I have never used a land transfer but will definently look into it. To scared to fly my new baby bully now. If you have used a transport service and you were very pleased with them,,,please give me the name of the company. thank you again