Statement From the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association on the United Airlines PetSafe Temporary Ban

March 20, 2018

Members of the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association would like to commend United Airlines for wanting to review its PetSafe program and their desire to strengthen it even further. However, PetSafe is already an innovative pet travel program that provides an invaluable service to several hundreds of people every day and the recent announcement is going to be devastating on the pet shipping industry. Many United States citizens, as well as people around the world, will be impacted by this decision. The embargo severely limits the options for pet owners, and IPATA wants to do whatever it can to keep families together with their beloved pets by ensuring there are direct and safe travel routes for pets. This temporary ban on pet transportation will also be detrimental to our U.S. military members as well, many of whom have no other way of transporting their pets when they are reassigned.

We strongly recommend and request for an amendment to this decision and to work with IPATA and its professional pet shippers for a solution.

Kim Cunningham, Communication Director
International Pet and Animal Transportation Association (IPATA)
/ www.ipata.org