Plan B Forum

Woman says airline suggested she flush her emotional support hamster down the toilet. So she did

A dwarf hamster named Pebbles is the latest victim in the ongoing battle between airlines and passengers who want to travel with their “emotional support” animals.

Pebbles’ owner, Belen Aldecosea was scheduled to fly from Baltimore to her home in Florida on Spirit Airlines. When she booked her reservation, Aldecosea said she was assured by a Spirit Airlines representative that she could bring the hamster on board with her. But when the 21-year-old arrived at Baltimore-Washington International airport for her Nov. 21 flight, she was told Pebbles was not welcome.

And then, she told the Miami Herald, things took a turn for the worse.

Unable to bring the hamster with her but needing to get home to deal with a medical issue, Aldecosea said an airline representative suggested she either set Pebbles free outdoors or flush her down the toilet.

Aldecosea said she spent hours scrambling to find another way to get home, including trying to rent a car. But given it was the holiday season, there were no cars available. And so an increasingly desperate Aldecosea said she flushed Pebbles down an airport toilet.

“She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet,” Aldecosea told the Herald. “I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the stall.”

A spokesperson for Spirit Airlines, a low-cost carrier based in Miramar, Florida, confirmed that a Spirit employee incorrectly told Aldecosea that she could bring her hamster on the flight, but denied that an employee told Aldecosea to flush the hamster or harm her in any way.

Three things:

(1) An "emotional support hamster" is not a thing.

(2) The attachment to your "emotional support hamster" can't be that strong if you are willing to kill it.

(3) Anyone who would kill an animal in that way is a budding serial killer.

Not to be the contrarian, but:

1. If we accept that animals can offer emotional support and well being (and I think there is a lot of literature stating the same, then I find an emotional support hamster no more surprising than an emotional support cat or bird. Whether the airlines should have to accommodate passengers who have such legitimate support animals is something very different (as is whether this woman legitimately needed the animal for emotional support).

2. Perhaps, but then we don't know what her medical issue was, or how seriously she needed treatment. If she, e.g., had to get to Florida by the next day to avoid serious medical consequences, or perhaps to be with a dying family member, her reaction would be more understandable.

3. This is a concern, but then some, when faced with the terrible choice (if she had an honest and serious medical need to attend to in Florida), might also see drowning as a more humane choice than releasing the animal into the 'wilds' outside the airport to freeze to death; when I was a very young kid I recall the ASPCA used to drown animals "over their limit" by throwing them into the bay in cages and then retrieving the bodies. It is not a particularly nice way to die, but I don't see it as tantamount to showing cruelty, torture, or some sort of an indifference to life or suffering.

Face it, this might well be just a selfish woman who flushed her pet down the john when it was an inconvenience to her plans, or it might be a woman akin to Sophie who, when faced with a situation having no viable alternatives, made a choice no one should have to make. I think she more likely the former than the latter, but then I am a cynic. But we do not know for certain

I endorse your post right up to the cynical bit, Big RR.

When I was 10 or 11 I wanted a mouse for a pet; at the pet store I decided my mouse should have a friend for when I was at school, so I asked for 2 girl mice, which the pet store salesman said he’d get for me - not revealing that he was entirely clueless about sexing mice. There ensued many many litters of baby mice, because the boy mouse would jump on the girl mouse again mere minutes after she’d given birth.

This became a source of terrible sadness for me, because each time I had a terrible choice: flush the baby mice down the toilet while they were still sightless and largely senseless, or let them grow up and sell them back to the pet store where I learned in horror they would be fed to the snakes.

Which choice would you have made?

After the first litter, I would have exchanged the macho mouse for a minnie mouse.

In this case you might want to call it a "Soakie's Choice."

HELP ME... Help Me... help me...

I would likely have done the same as Joe Guy, or at least put the parents in two cages; I also would have learned how to sex mice and kept the males separate from the females, and then would have tried to find people who wanted mice for pets. If that didn't work, I am not sure, but I would have tried to avoid flushing or making them snake dinner as best I could. But sincerely can see this could be a no better alternative offer of choices, and I would have to choose the lesser of the evils at the time. And I do think this woman could have been in the same situation, as I suggested. But I have seen people who released puppies and kittens on the streets when they became inconvenient, and I have heard stores every easter of chicks, ducks, and domestic bunnies being released into the wild to be preyed upon or freeze to death, hence my cynicism. If I knew more about why she absolutely had to be on that flight and why all other alternatives were not acceptable, I could easily change my views.

Y'all are missing a couple of particularly telling points in the article ....

Pebbles’ owner, Belen Aldecosea, was scheduled to fly from Baltimore to her home in Florida on Spirit Airlines. When she booked her reservation, Aldecosea said she was assured by a Spirit Airlines representative that she could bring the hamster on board with her. But when the 21-year-old arrived at Baltimore-Washington International airport for her Nov. 21 flight, she was told Pebbles was not welcome.

Elsewhere, it was said that Ms. Aldecosea — who is a Texas State University student but was living in Philadelphia at the time (??) — was "needing to get home to deal with a medical issue."

1)  She was trying to get home to Florida.  How'd she and her critter get from Florida to Texas to Baltimore — or Philly, for that matter — in the first place?
2)  Nov. 21 was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  Does anyone but me think it's more than just a coincidence that her "medical issue" — for which she was able to book a reserved seat, in advance — just happened to fall within the same week as one of the two busiest travel periods of the year?

I think all this 21-year-old pampered bimbo wanted was to get home for turkey dinner with her family and felt like taking her pet rodent along.

-"BB"-

BB, you comments confirm to me that present-day news media is dominated by individuals at all levels who cannot read with understanding. The filter of 'copy-editor' is gone.

snailgate.

Sergent BB to suspect: "Sit down Ms. Aldecosea, this won't take long. I have a few questions."

Joe Guy wrote:After the first litter, I would have exchanged the macho mouse for a minnie mouse.

Or better yet:

RayThom wrote:Sergent BB to suspect: "Sit down Ms. Aldecosea, this won't take long. I have a few questions."

That's one way of doing it, I suppose, but this guy and his "Oh, just one more thing..." always seemed to get results too.


-"BB"-

Also too she ignored the instructions:

Dont's

1) Never use cedar bedding. Always use aspen, pine, or other softwoods. Cedar will cause respiratory problems and death in dwarf hamsters!

2) Never give your hamster a bath, no matter how dirty it is. Chinchilla sand, which can be purchased at a pet store, is a good alternative. It is safe for dwarf hamsters and many of them like to roll in it. It will remove excess oils from the fur.

Never give your hamster a bath, no matter how dirty it is.

I saw that movie--they turn into monsters if they get wet, right?

Which choice would you have made?

here's mine

or let them grow up and sell them back to the pet store where I learned in horror they would be fed to the snakes.

Snakes gotta eat too, just like the worms.
I like snakes (turtles too). Had many while growing up. Some, like the corn snake, ate mice and when he got bigger ate rats. The garter snakes leaned toward frogs, toads, goldfish and carp.

ETA
And my dog was/is instrumental in my early and continued sobriety. But I don't need him to fly with me.
Others are different. There should be some way to have these "emotional support" animals certified as it seems some are "gaming" the system.

Snakes don't do well with porcupines, however.