Air Canada, WestJet & Porter are excluding ferret owners from flying with their pets. Ferrets are not welcome under your seat in the cabin or as checked baggage on your flight, on any airline.

Ferret owners hoping to travel with their pets must make separate trips to live-cargo shipping facilities and arrange contact people to receive the ferret upon arrival at a destination cargo facility.

Ferrets that are dropped off at cargo facilities spend up to two hours waiting for transfer to the airport in busy and extremely loud cargo warehouses, which are not always temperature controlled.

Once transferred into the airport from the cargo facilities, ferrets are loaded into commercial passenger jets on commercial passenger routes, along with the cats, dogs, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, etc. who were allowed to be checked on their owners flights at their respective airline counters.

I consider this to be an outrageous treatment ferrets and ferret-owning passengers' time and money. There is no other way to fly with ferrets in Canada other than flying them with an associated Cargo company such as WestJet Cargo or AC Live Cargo. Ferret owners are being charged absurd prices for substandard service that cat and dog owners simply do not have to put up with.

Ferrets are wonderful additions to many Canadian familes. I often say that ferrets are like "perma-kittens" because they never grow tired of chasing toys, feather wands, and rattle balls. Unlike cats, they are far more adventurous and curious of their surroundings. They love to go on walks and explore all the neighourhood parks, and most of all, they love their human families.

Air Canada, WestJet & Porter, as Canada's three major national airlines this unfair treatment of a select group of pet owners needs to stop and the purpose of this petition is to help you to understand how many potential customers are affected by your current pet policies.

Quick Facts About Ferrets:

Ferrets are mustelids, NOT rodents. They have far more in common with cats and would rather eat a rodent than be friends with one.

Ferrets are domestic animals and have been domesticated for an estimated 2,500 years - longer than the domestic cat.

Ferrets smell much nicer than dogs. Most well-kept ferrets hardly have any scent at all, as they are self-grooming animals similar to cats.

Ferrets are legal throughout Canada, and are therefore legal for air transport throughout Canada.

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/trans/transpoe.shtml

and

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/anima/trans/petcome.shtml

Transport Canada has no restrictions placed on ferrets travelling by air throughout the US and Canada so it is entirely up to the airlines to decide - we want to ensure they make the right decision and allow ferrets on board their flights.

In order to ensure success, please sign & share this petition to change their minds.