Guam Animals in Need president Lauren Cabrera and Del. James Moylan are calling on United Airlines to resume a pet shipping program for the civilian community that was discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic, and later revived but only for departing military personnel.
Currently, United allows military personnel who leave Guam on permanent change of orders to ship up to four pets on its flight to Hawaii, where arrangements are made to transfer to another mainland-bound carrier.
Cabrera said they want United to extend the same opportunity to the civilian community.
“It's borderline discriminatory,” she said.
Moylan, in a recent letter to United Airlines President and CEO Scott Kirby, said “when it comes to a bond between individuals and their pets, there is no distinction in whether the individual wears a uniform or not.”
Moylan also wrote that United has a pet travel policy within the 50 contiguous states, which makes him wonder why Guam, a U.S. territory, is excluded from this policy.
“While we understand that this is your business policy, we do hope that on behalf of our constituents, that there will be some consideration for our civilian population,” Moylan told Kirby in that letter.
Cabrera said there are foreign carriers that are willing to ship pets but because of cabotage laws, “you cannot ship your pets on a foreign carrier between two U.S. points.”
According to Cabrera, United discontinued its pet shipping program several years ago because of an incident in which a dog was placed in an overhead bin by a flight attendant and died.
The program was brought back after the pandemic but only for military personnel.
Cabrera said she has reached out repeatedly to United executives on Guam, and at the corporate office in the U.S. mainland.
She said this included United's vice-president of government affairs and global public policy Theresa Fariello who, Cabrera said, is also the chairperson of the Humane Rescue Alliance, a national organization dedicated to assisting pet owners.
However, Cabrera said Fariello has not replied to multiple email messages.
Cabrera said if United allows up to four pets to be shipped per flight, that would be up to 1460 that could potentially be saved.
“It's heartbreaking that people have to leave their pets behind to be euthanized,” Cabrera said.
She said she will continue to push for United to resume its pet shipping program.
“As long as I'm killing dogs because people are leaving them behind because they can't ship them, I won't stop,” Cabrera added.
