While it only took a few hours for a wolverine roaming Newark airport to be caught and contained, an even more wily creature roamed a different airport in the New York metropolitan area for two weeks. Felix the cat, who was moving from the United Arab Emirates to the U.S. along with his owners, escaped from his carrier when the top was crushed. Fortunately, searchers found him safe and in good health.
While they’re happy to have their cat back, his owners are rather upset that they paid $1,200 to ship a pet in the cargo hold. “For them to take a cat and ship him like he was cargo, not a live animal, makes me sick,” one of his owners told CNN. “You trust that people care and are doing the job well, and then this happens.”
Searchers used trained dogs to sniff out where the cat had recently been, and placed humane traps in those areas. Two weeks after Felix went missing, he turned up in one of those traps.
To soothe cat-lovers’ souls, here’s a photo of Felix reunited with one of his owners.
(Friends of Jack)
In a statement to CNN before Felix was found, the airline responsible for Felix during the flight, Etihad, said that they plan to review their pet-handling procedures, and “the safety and care of pets traveling with Etihad Airways is a top priority.”
“Friends of Jack” is a group dedicated to finding pets lost in airports. Jack was a cat who escaped from his carrier at JFK in 2011 when his owner was moving from New York to California. He was eventually found after two months, and was too malnourished and sick to survive. Group leaders are determined that no pet should have to go through that, and it organizes volunteers all over the world to help find them. Volunteers do everything from searching airports and the surrounding area with scent dogs to simply calling local veterinarians and shelters to check whether missing pets have turned up.
Friends of Jack [Facebook]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
