While traveling with your dogs and cats may seem overwhelming, have you ever wondered how large and exotic animals are transported by air? To ensure animal safety and welfare, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has regulations for transporting live animals by air. In addition to the IATA’s rules, people must also comply with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is a global agreement governments around the world have signed.
The CITES agreement ensures that a stringent system of licenses regulates the international trade in wild animals and endangered species and controls them. People transporting exotic and endangered animals are responsible for submitting the correct documentation, which must be approved before shipping the animal. Safely transporting animals like elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers, bears, and giraffes requires meticulous planning. Before transporting any species covered under the CITES agreement, all relevant documentation must be submitted and approved before the animal can be put aboard an aircraft.
Transporting pets overseas by air
In 2010, my wife and I relocated from the United States to Spain with our two dogs. We first needed to ensure all their vaccinations were up-to-date, have them microchipped with European Union-compliant microchips, and obtain a veterinary international health certificate from a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) accredited veterinarian.
The USDA health certificates were more complex, as the closest USDA vet was a horse veterinarian an hour’s drive from where we lived. Once you have all the correct paperwork and airline-compliant dog carriers, it’s off to the airport, where you say goodbye to your pets before loading them onto the plane.
When we arrived at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN), we were told that the dogs were at a holding facility on the other side of the airport. Fortunately, we had rented a car and were able to drive there. The veterinarian on duty said she needed to observe the dogs for a couple of hours to ensure they were well. Still, in the meantime, she gave us paperwork that needed to be given to Spanish Customs to approve bringing the dogs into Spain. Thankfully, we had a car, as this was a mile from where the dogs were being held. In the end, everything worked out, but given all the conditions attached to transporting dogs, can you imagine what you need to go through when transporting a large or exotic animal?
The air transport of animals needs to be looked at on an individual basis
Today, it is commonplace to transport horses by air for races and sporting events, and several air charter companies regularly do this. Some even have facilities at the airports they work out of to house the horses before and after travel. While transporting horses by air is commonplace, transporting other types of animals needs to be considered individually.
Photo: Air Canada
The most important thing is working with veterinarians who understand the animals’ needs and what kind of environment needs to be created before they can travel. The animal’s overall health and well-being must be considered long before it is put aboard a plane to ensure a good, stable environment during transportation.
Photo: Liege Airport
China and Panda Diplomacy
Since its founding in 1949 following the end of the Chinese Civil War, the People’s Republic of China has used its native giant pandas as a symbol of peace and goodwill toward other nations. Endemic to China, the giant panda is found in mountainous regions of the country.
With the loss of its natural habitat for humans, the number of giant pandas in the wild has dwindled. For foreign zoos, having a panda house is not just a massive attraction for visitors but also a way of helping them breed to ensure the species survives.
In 1972, China achieved a diplomatic milestone after United States President Richard Nixon made a historic trip to the country, ending twenty years of poor relations between the two countries. To celebrate the visit, China gifted the United States two 18-month-old giant pandas named Hsing-Hsing and Ling Ling. The practice of gifting giant pandas to other nations changed to loaning them to foreign zoos in 1984 after China realized foreign countries would pay millions toward conservation projects.
Not only did this help China ensure that its wild pandas survived, but it also encouraged foreign zoos to breed pandas in captivity. Sadly, it can cost up to a million dollars a year to house and feed pandas, a dilemma that is proving difficult for zoos that need more funds.
Finland returns two pandas to China
In 2017, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, paid a state visit to Finland, where he signed a joint agreement guaranteeing the protection of pandas. In a show of appreciation, China agreed to loan Finland two pandas for 15 years. To house and look after the pandas named Lumi and Pyry, the Ähtäri Zoo built a $9 million panda house.
Related Boeing 777 ‘FedEx Panda Express’ Flies Giant Pandas From China To Washington DC One of the pandas, Bao Li, will be the third generation in his family to spend time in the US capital.
Unfortunately, following COVID-19 and rising inflation, the zoo located in central Finland, 300 miles from Helsinki, decided to return the pandas after the Finnish government refused to pay for the panda’s upkeep.
After being placed in quarantine for a month, Lumi and Pyry were shipped back to China by DHL Global Forwarding. The company’s Director of Air Freight, Tuomas Kansikas, also spoke to Finava about transporting the pandas back to China.
“When the aircraft landed in Helsinki, veterinarians from the zoo checked the condition of the pandas, and then customs went in to check the documents. Afterward, the animals were loaded onto our temperature-controlled trucks, which had temperature sensors and cameras that allowed us to check the condition of the pandas in real-time.” He added, “We saw that being in charge of both the air and land transport was most beneficial to the animals. Many times, when the chain is handled by one group, the job becomes clearer.”
