A COLLEGE student is considering legal action against Spirit Airlines, for allegedly leading her to drown her emotional support hamster because she couldn’t bring it on her flight.
It all started in November when Aldecosea, 21, a Texas State University student living in Philadelphia at the time, booked a flight from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to her home in South Florida.
She was traveling to Fort Lauderdale to have a large growth removed from her neck — which was one of the reasons she got Pebbles the hamster to begin with.
The animal helped comfort her before she knew the growth was benign, especially since she didn't know many people in Philadelphia, Goodman said.
She called Spirit ahead of time to ask whether Pebbles could accompany her on the flight, Goodman said. The airline said traveling with Pebbles was fine, but when Aldecosea got to the airport, that changed.
She checked in with the airline, bringing along paperwork that proved the rodent was an emotional-support animal. One employee remarked how cute Pebbles was, Goodman said.
As Aldecosea walked to security, a second employee told her the animal wasn't allowed onboard.
The airline changed her 10 am flight to a later one at 7pm to give Aldecosea time to make arrangements for the animal, Spirit spokesman Derek Dombrowski said.
Aldecosea told the Miami Herald she was hours from friends who could help, wasn't able to rent a car and taking a Greyhound bus would take days.
A Spirit employee, she told the newspaper, suggested she let Pebbles go outside or flush her down the toilet. Aldecosea thought it would be inhumane to let the animal freeze outside and decided to flush her in an airport toilet, she told the Herald.
“She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet,” Aldecosea told the newspaper. “I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the stall.”
Spirit acknowledged that an employee did incorrectly tell Aldecosea that her hamster could accompany her but vehemently denies one of its employees told her to kill the animal.
"After researching this incident, we can say confidently that at no point did any of our agents suggest this guest (or any other for that matter) should flush or otherwise injure an animal," Dombrowski said. "It is incredibly disheartening to hear this guest reportedly decided to end her own pet’s life."
The airline outlines its policy online, including that it does not allow snakes, other reptiles, rodents, ferrets or spiders.
PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said someone should be held accountable in the animal's death.
"One phone call could have saved this animal, or some kind person at the airport could have helped," said Daphna Nachminovitch, senior vice president of the animal rights organization. "Flushing a living being down a toilet is not only cruel but also illegal, and both the person who killed this animal and Spirit Airlines — if an employee did, in fact, advise the woman to drown the hamster — should be charged. This must have been a horrific, terrifying death."
No one reported the incident at the time, Maryland Transportation Authority Police Lt. Kevin Ayd said, adding that media reports were the first authorities learned of it.
Goodman said this obviously wasn't what Aldecosea wanted to do, but having adults tell her it was OK compounded the situation.
"This was a highly stressful situation and people react in a lot of different ways," he said. "She's only 21 years old, a kid still."
He said she got a replacement hamster since the incident but is still upset.
"She's distraught," Goodman said. "Imagine anyone in that situation that has to make a choice like that. It was a horrible situation, and she's still distraught."
He said they are examining whether to file a lawsuit against the airline.
"A hamster is the most innocuous animal. It's confined to a cage," Goodman said. "No one would have probably even known it was there."
Emotional-support animals — and what rights passengers have to bring them on planes — have been a nagging issue for airlines. In recent weeks, both Delta and United airlines revised their policies about such animals and adopted stricter rules and requirements.
United’s update coincided with an incident Jan. 28 when the carrier refused to accept a peacock named Dexter aboard a flight from Newark to Los Angeles. The peacock was rejected under the airline’s previous policy for health and safety reasons.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel