The country’s flagship mail carrier transports millions of animals every year, but puzzlingly does not employ a single veterinarian to oversee its animal shipment operations and practices. With weak expert supervision, the shipments happen under conditions that most Americans would find unacceptable for domestic pets like dogs or cats.
Animals ranging from birds to reptiles and bees to fish are shipped cross-country with limited standards that only mandate basic ventilation and box labeling.
The conditions at airports are particularly heartbreaking. Animals transported through the Postal Service via plane can be left on the tarmac for extended periods before being loaded into the cargo hold. That leaves the living, breathing creatures exposed to extreme heat, bitter cold or other harsh weather conditions.
When traveling on vacation through the Phoenix airport in July, would you leave your family dog baking in a crate on the hot runway? Absolutely not.
Stronger federal rules are needed to ensure that animals shipped through the Postal Service are treated humanely. The status quo around animal welfare is abhorrent, but the government does not need to reinvent the wheel to rectify the situation. Other companies that transport live animals already have robust rules in place that can, and should, be duplicated at the U.S. Postal Service.
