The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Travel The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Travel
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Kicking “Support Animals” Off the Plane


Frequent travelers have no doubt seen some strange things in passenger cabins, including a surprising variety of so-called “emotional support animals” (ESAs) – critters that are allowed to fly with human companions who say they just can’t travel without their furry friends close at hand. But now some airlines want to kick the menagerie off the plane.

According to Aviation Daily, carriers including United, JetBlue and Delta are asking the Transportation Department to amend its rules to ban emotional support animals from passenger cabins. 

What kind of animals are we talking about? The most common, of course, are dogs – and there are plenty of stories about passengers falsely claiming their canines are support animals so that they can fly with them in the cabin instead of the cargo hold, or just to gain access to an up-front seat. Or they are simply trying to avoid the additional cost or burden of shipping the animal in the cargo hold?

To read more on this story, click here: Kicking “Support Animals” Off the Plane


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Monday, September 19, 2016

K-9 Teams at Dallas/Fort Worth International and Dallas Love Field Airports Failed Important Certification Tests that Check How Accurately They Can Detect Explosives


NBC 5 Investigates has learned several K-9 teams at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport failed important certification tests that check how accurately they can detect explosives, calling into question whether those teams are training enough to stay at the top of their game and keep passengers safe.

The mission of explosive detection K-9 teams is to keep bombs out of airports and off planes by screening baggage, cargo and passengers for potential threats.


New records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request raise questions about the top dogs at some of the nation’s biggest airports.

The records show K-9 teams funded by the Transportation Security Administration have failed annual certification tests at large U.S. airports, including D/FW Airport and Love Field, more than 50 times between Jan. 1, 2013, and June 15, 2015, the most recent detailed numbers TSA provided. Some teams failed to find explosives, while others had too many false alarms that could cause unnecessary airport evacuations.

K-9 teams that fail are pulled out of service and cannot work in airports again until they can pass the test, but experts NBC 5 Investigates spoke with say clusters of failures at some airports raise concerns about how well those teams are being managed.

The TSA said the failures are just a normal part of upholding high standards. But multiple failures at D/FW Airport and Love Field raise questions about whether those teams have been training enough to maintain the highest level of readiness.

In a statement, the TSA tells NBC 5 Investigates, “If a team does not meet TSA’s rigorous guidelines, it is decertified and restricted from working.”

“The team must successfully meet certification standards before returning to search duties. Dog teams that are unable to return to TSA’s high standards are subject to removal,” the TSA said.

The agency said teams performed better in the latter half of 2015 – with a 93-percent passing rate nationwide. But the agency would not share any detailed records for that time period or for 2016, so it’s unknown if there are still some airports with clusters of failures.

“We rely on K-9 teams a lot more now than we ever have in the history of aviation security,” said airport security consultant Jeffrey Price.

Price said the lives of passengers depend on how well the dog teams perform.

“Dogs have always been considered the gold standard in explosive detection. So when you’re considered the best, you better be the best,” said Price.

At Love Field, K-9 teams assigned to protect the airport failed four out of 14 tests with a failure rate of nearly 30 percent over two-and-a-half years. In 48 tests over the same time period, teams at D/FW Airport failed five times, or 10 percent of the time.

The nation’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, did better than those in Dallas with only two failures in 75 tests (3 percent) over the same two-and-a-half year time period. All K-9s managed by the Atlanta Police Department passed while two TSA managed teams failed.


To better understand why more K-9 teams failed at airports like Love Field and D/FW Airport, NBC 5 Investigates went to Alabama to one of the nation’s top K-9 training centers at Auburn University and AMK9.
AMK9 works with the university training dogs in explosive detection for agencies across the country.

“You need to convince that dog that there’s a reason to work,” said John Pearce, who used to help oversee training for the TSA.

Pearce said the main reason some dogs fail certification tests is the people in charge of those K-9 units don’t always set aside enough time for constant training. He sees a direct relationship between the quality of the training and the success the dogs have on tests.

“Our primary job is to find an explosive, as a dog team, but that dog believes its primary objective is to get that toy that’s in the handler’s pouch,” said Pearce.

In airports, dogs rarely find explosives, so unless they practice locating test explosives frequently, they may lose interest.

In addition, handlers also need constant practice to accurately recognize the dog’s cues.

Pearce said handlers need to train daily.

“Train, train, train and train as you’re going to work,” said Pearce.

NBC 5 Investigates wanted to know if the people in charge of the K-9s at Love Field and D/FW Airport are spending enough time training.

Some of the teams are managed directly by the TSA, but many are run by D/FW Airport police and Dallas police that get their dogs, training and funding from the TSA.

Dallas police declined an on-camera interview and would not answer any questions about their teams at Love Field.

When asked about the teams decertified at D/FW Airport, a spokesman sent a short statement saying, “All of the canine teams maintained by the D/FW Airport Department of Public Safety are currently certified and active.”

In 2013 the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, found “some K-9 teams were repeatedly not in compliance with TSA’s monthly training requirement.”

Since then, the TSA has made changes, including a new program starting Oct. 1 to hold local airport police departments more accountable for training and to enforce higher training standards.

With multiple failures at airports including D/FW Airport and Love Field make some experts wonder if supervision and training is needed in a business where there may not be a second chance.

“Lives depend on the proficiency of the teams,” said Price. “You don’t get a do over in real life. If that team misses an explosive, then that’s a device that can end up on a plane.”

The TSA’s records have shown nearly a dozen teams failed at Washington Dulles International Airport and more than 20 at Los Angeles International Airport from January 2013 to June 2015. NBC 5 Investigates will be on NBC’s Today Show Thursday morning with the national part of the report and on NBC 5 News at 6 p.m. with what other major airports are doing to pass tests and make sure their teams are ready.

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Friday, March 6, 2015

Busted by a Beagle at Logan…Again


Airport k-9
I was waiting for my suitcase at the baggage carousel at Logan International Airport’s Terminal E, having just returned from Iceland with my son and daughter.

From across the room, I spotted the beagle. He was heading in my direction.

I recognized him as an “agriculture canine” trained to sniff for prohibited foods that could be host to pests or diseases. Wearing a US Customs and Border Protection vest, the dog was sniffing his way through the crowd of passengers, his K-9 handler right behind him.

My stomach sank. I was carrying contraband — to wit, a banana. I knew he’d find it since I’d been busted by a beagle once before, in New Zealand, when I’d naively packed a piece of banana bread in my bag, never thinking it counted as fruit. Dozens of people watched — many of them smirking — when the dog detected it. I was mortified, and now I’d done it again.

In the spirit of full disclosure, let me say that I love dogs but detest beagles. In my experience, nothing good has ever come of an encounter with one. They hound me, quite literally.

I was 10 the first time it happened. I’d begged my parents to adopt a dog from an animal shelter, and we agreed on a beagle. She was a 40-pound misanthrope named Jolly, and she hated most people, including me.

One day, I bent down to pat her. With one ferocious snarl, Jolly leaped up and chomped on my nose, holding tight even when I stood up, screaming. The police were called. I was rushed to hospital. When it was all over, I still had my nose, but (thankfully) no more beagle.

So when I spotted the beagle in Terminal E, I had a strong sense of dread, and déjà vu. Not that I didn’t deserve what was coming. I’d knowingly stowed the banana in my backpack that morning — a double offense, actually, since I’d lifted it from our Reykjavik hotel breakfast buffet, ignoring the not-too-subtle warning printed on my paper placemat saying the meal was to be “enjoyed in the restaurant.”

I’d planned to eat it before we got to Logan, but forgot. And then it was time to fill out the Customs Declaration, which asked if I was bringing “fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds, food, insects.”

I hesitated. But I was hungry and tired, and there was a storm coming, and no food in the house, and who wanted to shop for groceries in a snow storm after a long flight from Iceland? Maybe, I reasoned, that banana was all that stood between me and a miserable night on an empty stomach. I ticked off the “No” box.

Besides what harm could one little Icelandic banana do?

And who’d know, anyway?

Roscoe knew. That was the dog’s name, according to Sean Smith, the public affairs officer for the US Customs and Border Protection Boston field office.

I kept my head down while Roscoe sniffed his way around the room, grateful that neither of my children was there to witness this. (My son had flown to Toronto and my daughter had wandered away.)

He moved quickly, deftly steering his handler through the crowd. He approached me and looked suspicious. He sniffed and then sat down, staring meaningfully at my backpack as though to say: “Once again, another idiot.” I remained deeply immersed in the suitcases rotating on the carousel.

“Are you sure, buddy?” the handler said, no doubt wondering how a woman old enough to be his mother could be capable of smuggling. I pretended not to hear.

He asked me if I was carrying any food.

I feigned a look of surprise. Why I did that, I don’t know.

“No,” I said politely.

He asked me to check my bag. At that point I should have just produced the accursed banana. but I was suddenly gripped by a mischievous impulse to let this play out as far as it could. I couldn’t bear to be shamed by a beagle, not again.

I made a show of rummaging through my backpack, and emerged with . . . a cookie, wrapped in a napkin. I’d snatched the cookie from the buffet table too. “I have a cookie, “ I told the guard. “Maybe that’s what he’s smelling?”

“Nope,” the man said.

Defeated, I surrendered my banana, mumbling a lame excuse about not knowing how it had gotten there. I was overcome by embarrassment, and by an urge to explain what I’d done in a way that would let me save face. But what was there to say? You mean, bananas are fruit?

Instead I turned to the beagle. “Good dog!” I said, feeling ridiculous.

The man gave the dog a treat. “Don’t. Bring. Fruit,” he scolded me, before turning on his heel. With my banana.

I was very lucky. Sean Smith told me I could have been fined $300.

Later, I texted my son to let him know we’d arrived safely. I added: “I got busted by a dog who sniffed my banana.”

Source: Linda Matchan

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Loyal Stray Dog in China, Wins Chinese Hearts after Following Cyclists for 1,000 Miles and Over 12 Mountains



A stray dog showed incredible loyalty, willpower and endurance, after she ran an extraordinary 1833 kilometers (1,056 miles) between China and Tibet. The small dog followed a team of cross-country cyclists after they fed her. She ran with them for 24 days, traveling from Kangding Sichuan province in China, to Lhasa in Tibet.

After they reached their destination, one of the cyclists decided to adopt the dog.

Zhang Heng, 22, told the China Daily he took up the grueling, mountainous bike race as a graduation trip to see if he could make it.

When he made a stop in Sichuan province, a small, hungry white dog approached him. "She was lying, tired, on the street," Zhang said. "So we fed her, and then she followed our team."

The little dog stayed by his team’s side night and day. At first they thought she was simply following them for the adventure. Then, Zhang said, "We felt she might want to come along with us, so we decided to bring her along to the end."

The team decided to name the dog Xiao Sa (a combination of "little" and the second syllable of Lhasa.)

The team fixed a small basket on a bike for Little Sa to carry her when she became tired and wanted to rest. However, most of the time, she insisted on running. Little Sa could run 50 to 60 kilometers a day. Cyclist Wang Zi remarked, "...She ran all the time, making me feel that she never feels tired."

As the race progressed, the number of cyclists dropped from 300 to six. Little Sa encouraged all of the remaining riders every day, as they climbed 10 grueling mountains, each higher than 4,000 meters.

"Many people stopped cycling in some sections, then took the bus, but the dog made it," Zang said. When biking downhill, Zhang put Little Sa on the back of his bike to protect her from the speeding bikes.

Little Sa would sometimes stop at milestones along the road, waiting for cyclists to catch up. When Zhang fell behind, she would put her paws on him to encourage him to keep going.

One cyclist said, "She's very smart and knows the route, because she never got lost even when we passed through mountains."

When they finally reached their destination, Zhang said he saw Little Sa as "a buddy and a friend".

"Little Sa's perseverance moved us a lot. With her encouragement we finally reached the Potala Palace." Zhang said. "I would like to take the dog home and take care of her. She has been a stray on the road for a long time. She needs a home."






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