Cats on airplanes: safe?

I have a cat in the U.S. that in a few months will be joining me in Taiwan. How safe (or unsafe) is it for animals to travel on airplanes? When I arrived in Taiwan, I remember opening my suitcases and all of my clothes were very very cold. When an animal travels on a plane, what part of the plane does he travel in, the same place that all of the luggage is? I can’t imagine that that’s the case, else they would freeze to death at 30,000 feet in -50 degrees farenheit air. Is there a lot of risk that an animal will die in flight? As much as I love my cat and want him here in Taiwan with me, if I was greatly risking his life by bringing him here, I would prefer he stay in the U.S. Don’t animals travel in planes all the time without harm, or am I mistaken? Please excuse my ignorant questions, as I’ve never travelled with a pet before.

(I am, however, aware of all the paperwork/permits/shots/etc that need to be done to take him here, my main concern as far as this post is concerned is his safety on the flight.)

Digin some other posts using the search function.
We brought our 2 cats to TW, and the temperature is set depending of life animals on board or not by the captain. No worry about that. The cheese in other passengers luguage will smell, but that is no concern anyway as bringing in cheese is not allowed anyway.
I would not suggest to let the cat fly itself on the other hand. that would be unsafe indeed.
Leave that to the captain.

So they are in the luggage compartment, but the captain will turn the heat on if there are live animals on board? I sure hope he doesn’t “forget” to turn it on, as I’m sure he has a lot of other things on his mind when preparing for a take off. The crappy thing is he would be flying by himself, as I am already here, so I wouldn’t be there to tell the stewardess to remind the captain to turn the heat on. :neutral:

Surely you could ask the person who brings the cat to the airport and checks it in, etc., to do any reminding that needs to be done?

[quote=“sandman”]
Surely you could ask the person who brings the cat to the airport and checks it in, etc., to do any reminding that needs to be done?[/quote]

Yah, but assuming he will fly the same route that I take to get here, he would be on 3 separate flights. Whoever drops him off before the first flight can remind the first airline, but not sure how well that message gets passed along on the next two flights, especially the Tokyo/Narita to Kaohsiung flight. I’ll definately be calling the airlines, I’m just not sure how effective that will be.

I’m beginning to consider flying back to the U.S. just to fly him back here myself. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to the little bugger:

you’d save yourself a lot of hassle by adopting a stray cat,aminalstaiwan.org banners are easy to spot on here…

if i was a dictator i would enforce the same rule for pets and kids:

whoever can afford to buy/procreate should have to adopt 1 first

We had our cat flown here on its own. All went fine, but the cat was pretty dehydrated when it got here. The poor thing didn’t know what that bottle was so it never drank a sip of water. Just used to drink out of a bowl, not a drip bottle.

Aren’t you able to get a more direct flight? We flew our cat from Calgary to Taipei, and then to Kaohsiung.

If your cat is healthy, I’d say it’s no more risky than it is for you to fly, IMO.

Lovely feline you have there, BTW.

I imagine my cat would have the same issue, as he’s never drank out of a drip bottle before either, only a bowl. Perhaps I could get his present caretakers to try teaching him to drink from a drip bottle before he goes.

I’m going to call around to different airlines and try to find the most direct route for him. When I flew here, I went from Hartford, CT to Chicago to Tokyo-Narita to Kaohsiung. It was a total of 25 hours of travel time including layovers.

And thanks for the compliment, I might be slightly biased, but I happen to think he’s the cutest cat in the world. :slight_smile:

It is generally safe but some airlines do not have temperature controlled cargo shipping even for live animals. Therefore, some airlines will not even permit animals at certain times of the year because its just too cold. Check with the airline first.

Its very smart and responsible of you to look into all this. Your pet’s life depends on it.
I had my cat sent here by cargo a few years ago and she did fine. Here are some things I would suggest:

  1. Give your pet some time, a few weeks prior to departure, to get used to the travel crate and using the drip water bottle. Don’t use a water dish in the travel crate as the water will spill during the flight and make for an uncomfortably cold journey for your pet.
  2. Purchase a medium weight pet coat to keep your pet comfortably warm on its journey.
  3. In the travel crate, lay down absorbent nappies (can purchase at pet stores and pharmacies) so your pet does not lay in its urine. Because there are often different segments of flights it’s recommended that you lay down several nappies, some covered in a plastic bag, for each segment of the flight. Shredded paper would work, too.
  4. Don’t feed your pet anything for 6- 8 hours prior to departure. There are good chances that your pet will get sick if it has any food in its stomach. It’s better to let them fast for the entire flight including all segments. Animals are used to this.
  5.      Book the most direct flight possible. Pet's are more sensitive to flying than you are. And you know how it feels after travelling for 25 hours. 
    

Check out this website for lots of useful information: www.pettravel.com

Thank you very much for all of the helpful information! My cat will probably be coming in April, so I’m going to start calling the airlines soon to find the most direct flight and make sure that he will be flying in a temperature controlled environment. I’m going to be reading up on that web site too. Thank you!