A student who “had to” flush her pet hamster down the toilet
before being allowed to board a Spirit Airlines plane to fly home to South
Florida is considering suing the airline. Belen Aldecosea says she twice called
the airline before heading to the airport to ensure she could bring along
“Pebbles,” her certified support animal.
Aldecosea
says that after she arrived at the Baltimore airport, Spirit refused to allow
the dwarf hamster on the flight. She says her only friends, other than Pebbles,
were hours away and that she needed to get home to tend to a medical condition.
She also claims that she tried to rent a car, unsuccessfully, and that a
Greyhound bus would’ve taken days to get to South Florida. According to
Aldecosea, an airline representative then suggested she flush the little rodent
down the toilet. She agonized for hours before finally doing just that.
“She
was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet. I
was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the
stall,” Aldecosea said. She’s thinking of suing Spirit over the conflicting
instructions that she avers wound up pressuring her into making an anguished
decision about Pebbles’ fate.
Aldecosea
claims the first Spirit employee checked her pet in with no problem, but, as
she walked towards the security checkpoint, another employee chased her down,
hollering that rodents were not allowed. She also says that Spirit agents told
her they couldn’t put the wee animal in the cargo hold, either.
A
spokesman for Spirit acknowledged the airline mistakenly told her that Pebbles
was allowed on board, but flatly denied that any Spirit employee recommended
flushing the hamster down the toilet. Most airlines do not allow rodent
passengers due to safety and health concerns.
According
to the Miami Herald, Aldecosea said she arranged for a later flight while she
decided what to do, but when that later flight too was boarding, she panicked.
She says she pondered whether to just let Pebbles free outside, but decided it
was more humane to end her life right away, and not let her run around scared
and cold, only to die getting hit by a car.
“I
didn’t have any other options,” she said.
This
story has been syndicated or reprinted in many, if not most, major newspapers
and online outlets. Whether it’s Cecil the lion, Harambe the gorilla, or
Pebbles the tiny rodent, the masses are outraged when an animal is harmed.
Don’t get me wrong, I love animals. I honestly don’t know if I could have
flushed that toilet.
But, there is a larger- much
larger- point here. Hundreds, often thousands, of babies every day are aborted
in the United States alone. Some are cut into pieces with a curette. Some have
their limbs torn off with a pliers. A few are partially extracted, their skulls
split open and brains vacuumed out. That’s simply business as usual for Planned
Parenthood (and others). Few weep. Their stories don’t go viral. There are no
newspaper articles. Somehow this just isn’t newsworthy.
What
that tells us about our society should be the biggest, and saddest, news of
all.
Keep on writing, great job!
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