“Pets are not baggage”[1]: the issue of animals welfare while transportation

Introduction

BBC News Russia reports: “Two cats were killed on board Aeroflot's flight from Moscow to Sofia. They received fatal injuries during transportation”^{^[2]}. The problem was that according to airline rules, it is prohibited to transport pets, whose weight is more than 8 kg, in the cabin. That is why the cats were transported in the luggage space. When unloading animals from the plane, the loaders inaccurately threw the cages, which led to damage to the containers and, as a result, to the serious injuries to the animals.

Unfortunately, there are lots of similar cases not only in Russia but all over the world. The US department of transportation states that there were 10 incidents involving animals on planes in 2020, which is less than in 2019, when there were 19 ones^{^[3]}. However, still this number is big, taking into account the fact that animals are also life creatures that have feelings and their lives should matter as much as lives of people. These cases continue to happen because most of us consider pets as members of our family and thus any long trip seems to be impossible without them. People just want to stay close to their pets and therefore have to take them with them on travel, including on the plane. And actually they have a right to do this. So why does a wish to travel with your pet be a risk to its life?

There are several problems with travelling with pets on a plane. As it was mentioned before, most of the airlines have a rule that big animals are not allowed to be in the cabin and that must travel in the luggage space. The first thing that can happen is the damage of the container with a pet. Moreover, long-distance flights and flight delays should be taken into account because pets need to be fed and watered timely. Finally, the temperature regime is often lower than needed in the luggage space which results in freezing the animals. These are just examples but the list of all regulations that should be followed is much longer.

As for the relation of this problem to the international law, International transportation is the most obvious field that should be regulated by it. The European Convention for the Protection of Animals during International Transport was adopted in 1971, which became an important step towards “assurance of the right of animals to be guaranteed humane treatment which is consistent with modern conceptions of animal welfare”^{^[4]}. Then why do the incidents still happen? In this essay we will try to elaborate on this issue by considering the other legal norms existing in this sphere and analysing the possible solutions of problems with these regulations.

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