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In the Doghouse
The Travel Critic · May 3, 1999

Last week's column suggesting that most pets don't belong in aircraft cabins brought out the animal in some of you.

My mailbox overflowed with more than 3,000 (mostly irate) e-mails. And more than 80 percent of the 12,361 poll respondents said limiting animals was a bad idea.

"I believe that pets have every right to travel with their owners," one reader shot back. "How would you like to be stuck in the cargo hold of the plane in the heat or cold?"

A few readers took my side. "Most pets should stay home - for both the pet's and the owner's sake. That said, I don't think some humans should be allowed in the passenger cabin of a plane either," one traveler quipped.

A fair number of the responses incorrectly assumed that I hated pets. "You are obviously not an animal lover," one reader exclaimed. "Otherwise you would have never written such an awful article."

To the contrary: I have two shorthaired alley cats named Max and Moritz that I dearly love. And they forgive me for my last column.

Other e-mails were downright cocky. "I hope ABCNEWS.com and your well-named Crabby Traveler will publicize the poll results about people's feelings regarding pets traveling in airplane cabins. I was horrified by his unbelievably slanted article and feel in all fairness, the general public should know the results of your poll. Overwhelmingly, your poll shows people believe pets should be allowed to travel in the cabin."

Fair enough. But if this were a referendum, then I would accuse you and your fellow pet fanciers of stuffing the ballot box. I've lost count of how many dog and cat e-mail lists and discussion groups this story got on. Shame on you for skewing my poll. Or to put it into canine terms: Drop it!

To get a more accurate idea of how the general public feels about this issue, you should have checked the poll early on, before the pet enthusiasts caught wind of the story. Half of the respondents favored a ban; the other half didn't.

But the pro-pets contingent was decidedly more vehement. "All you folks with noisy, obnoxious, kicking, loud kids should leave them at home," sniffed one pet owner.

Another woman wrote to tell me about the horrors of flying with her dog in the cargo hold. "The last time she flew, her crate was broken by something hitting it very hard. I felt very angry about that," she said, adding, "Who are you to ban pets from flights?"

Small point of clarification: I never said we should keep all pets from flying. I said that most animals have no place in the cabin.

A mailbox full of flames isn't going to change my mind. I haven't had such a heated response to one of my columns since I suggested that babies aren't suited to flying a few weeks ago.

Back then, my mailbox overflowed with angry notes from ticked-off moms who typed in ALL UPPERCASE to better convey their disapproval. Instead of giving them a public spanking, too, I have a far better idea: Check out the poll to the right. Have at it, folks.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.