Saturday, February 10, 2018

Student "Forced" To Flush Support Hamster Down Airport Toilet


                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. 



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