Flying with Rats

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About a little rat named Mousie!

How to travel with your rat or rodent

…because some people, as we know, are silly and speciesist, it is impossible to fly with a rodent in-cabin, where the pet, you, and everyone else is safest - because you care the most about the safety of your pet!

So, what do you do if you have to move across the country, or are taking an extended visit and want to take your pet rat (or other rodent) along? This question has come up many, many times in the past. In this page, we discuss how to do it.

Much of this advice was given to Mousie's guardians by the Canada Rat Adoption list members prior to their flight. The essential components are distilled here. Remember, no one will care for your pet like you do. So take maximum precautions to ensure their safety, and follow the formal guidelines both here and at your airline. Don't expect the baggage and check-in personnel to give guaranteed personal attention to your pet. When the staff at the Air Canada counter accepted Mousie's transport container, her owners thought all would be well. Air Canada was mistaken. Mousie was sent in an incorrect carrier, and got lost at a connecting airport.

Three items that are absolutely essential to follow should you travel with a pet are the following:

1) Do it only during temperate weather. Not in winter, and not during hot days, and early morning and evening is best. We found out upon Mousie's return that planes can be on the tarmac for a lont time, loaded, prior to take-off - and the temperature variation can be quite wide. Plan a time of day that is not too hot!

2) Get a direct flight. No stopovers, no connections. (If you must connect, take several hours between the flights, and pick up your pet at the connection, and recheck your pet back in just prior to boarding). If your pet becomes lost, you want searches to only have to be conducted at the origin and destination.

3) Always use the sturdiest airline-certified carrier you can find. You can put your pet in a more suitable small-animal carrier inside the cat carrier, so long as it has ample cushioning and air circulation. Screw it down - if it has a bottom, drill the cat carrier and the transporter in matching places and use small bolts to anchor it. Make sure the carrier is normally smash-, buckle-, and escape-proof, and LABEL ALL PARTS THOROUGHLY. During transport, things shift, fall, and break - and it happens all the time. The baggage guys have a tendency to throw suitcases during loading, for example.

4) Give the animal enough fruit to remain hydrated for three days!

The link to the pet page for Air Canada is here. There have been changes in their policies since the Mousie incident. The page does not, however, indicate airline certification standards for carriers. That would be on another page o the Air Canada site. Check your own airline for its standards! WestJet and CanJet are two other Canadian carriers with pet policies.

Mousie's transporter was found before she was - the tabs that held the plastic lid to the plexiglass box broke, and Mousie escaped. She was trapped 8 days later, and survived the ordeal without much damage (scraped tail, dehydration). She was 2 1/2 years old, and she lived another month and a half.

Loading procedure for pets as baggage

The following is Air Canada's, and likely all airlines', procedure for checking in a pet for travel.

When you board a plane with a pet, the Lead Station Attendant calls in to the destination airport's Weight and Balance office that there is live cargo aboard the plane. This gets logged on the Load Sheet. The animal is carried to the live cargo compartment and is installed there.

When the plane arrives at its transit points (stopovers), the animals in the live cargo compartment are verified for the Weight and Balance office. Same thing when it arrives at the destination airport, except that the animal is then unloaded and taken in to the Baggage office for claiming. If unclaimed for very long, it goes to a vet or an animal handling company to be looked after until its owners are found.

A safer alternative: Live Cargo shipping

After Mousie was found and had her vet check-up, she got to fly back in one of these special rodent-shipping boxes, right on the flight deck (cockpit) of an Air Canada Cargo jet.

You can also, of course, use an airline-certified cat carrier with the customizations required for rodent occupants. See pink sidebar. (I'd add a hammock, too!)

If at all possible, call your airline and ask for Live shipping. Find a live animal cargo specialist. You want this because cargo is a whole different system than baggage, where animals are treated better. (Cargo flights are not passenger flights. They have some passengers, but we'll get to that in a minute.) I confirmed with Rob Little, one of Air Canada's animal handlers, that there are more staff people around per shipment than in regular baggage, and they also have specialized knowledge about how to handle animals of different kinds. As they handle rats a lot, they know rats! They also ship horses, tigers, elephants - you name it.

Still, I wouldn't want to fly separately from my pets, and neither would most people, so I inquired about being a passenger on a cargo plane. It can be done, but it requires special arrangements. Usually the seats on a cargo plane are occupied by "dead-heading" airline staff - staff heading home at the end of their shift, or for their time off after a week of work.

Get help when your pet is lost!

For one - never assume you don't know anyone who knows someone who works at a major corporation - tell everyone you know! Someone came forward on the CRA list because he had connections through friends and colleagues in the industry. I found that one of my petsitters has an uncle who worked 30 years for Air Canada in the baggage division.

For two - unions are proliferate in any airport and airline. Call the union who's responsible for the baggage and cargo - chances are, two or three unions are! They know - or are - the people in charge of doing actual physical work, whereas the Corporate offices wouldn't want any disruption in the normal flow of their day.

For three - get the word out at the airport, and call the Airport Authority, call Security, call the Canine Unit, call the corporate office (if you have some time to be put on hold), and call the Canada Customs (or your country's equivalent) agriculture inspector. Some Airport Authorities have wildlife departments and THEY were the ones to finally trap Mousie at Pearson International! But, the airport may claim they can't act until asked to by the airline, because if the airline is a tenant at the airport, it has ultimate authority over its domain. But the more people who know, the greater its priority.

NEVER give up in the face of adversity in searching for a pet! Drop your ego, but uphold your convictions (pets matter)! It can be truly amazing what you can accomplish when you set your mind to it.