Dog parents often prefer to take their pets when traveling by air. As reported by the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association (IPATA), a non-profit trade association, over 1 million pets board flights annually in the United States. Moreover, in the last decade, pet trips via airlines have risen.
Many airline companies have currently been trying to regulate the situation, with new U.S. government regulations and airline company policies struggling with maintaining the influx. The implementation of new rules from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made the procedure of traveling with dogs even more complicated for pet owners. Reportedly, these new rules and regulations have been aimed at preventing the spread of the viral disease rabies.
New CDC regulations add complexity to flying with pets
New CDC rules for preventing the spread of rabies have added more complications to air travel for pet parents in the United States. To catch up with the pet rules of other developed countries, the U.S. government has made regulations stricter. For example, they have increased the paperwork involving moving pet dogs into the United States. The rules have also overstretched the country’s existing infrastructure of pet importation. As a result, airline companies have been struggling to keep up with the new changes.
According to WIRED Magazine, the CEO and president of the Ark at JFK International Airport, Elizabeth Schuette, talked about how the change in rules reflects a deep cultural shift around pets in the U.S. She said, “There’s been a massive change over the past five or 10 years in the acceptability of pets in airplane cabins.”
In the meantime, several passengers have reported frustration and confusion with the new regulations. This is due to the slow adaptation of the policies for accommodating pets traveling on the plane. WIRED Magazine reported that the CDC has disclosed that the new rules are a response to the influx of dogs arriving in the United States with falsified or dubious rabies vaccination records. Since 2007, the country has been free of dog rabies. The United States government aims to keep it that way.
