Our world is a confusing place full of conundrums, riddles, conjectures, and hypotheses. Certainty is but a dream. The best we can hope for is that when we do briefly glimpse reality that the truth is something bearable.
I say all this because we had an article from Mercedes about an airline for pets (I think she was jealous of the animals). This triggered a memory for TOSSABL:
I’m now sitting here on my sister-in-law’s couch trying to not laugh too loudly at the though of a pilot flying around in his Cessna, or whatever, with a cabin full of ferrets.
Have a great weekend everyone! Remember, we’ll have a Project Cactus finale for Christmas.
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Photo: Textron Aviation
Enough is enough get those melon farming ferrets off of my plane
I can’t speak for ferrets on a plane, but it is possible to smuggle ferrets across international borders by hiding them up the sleeve’s of your girlfriend’s coat.
I am BEGGING for follow-up details
I saw a stray kitten smuggled out of Cuba and into Europe in a lady’s bra on a popular yt travel channel. Allegedly
I have no further comment on this particular feat as this is a diverse community and I hope it will stay that way
Something something motherf*cking ferrets on this motherf*cking plane!
Catsnakes!
Back in 1994, we flew in a friend’s Rockwell Commander 112 from Kansas to Texas to adopt a new dog. Carrier strapped into the back seat. Ferrets in an appropriate pet carrier would be easy-peasy as long as the carrier entry gate wasn’t unlatched.
You clearly haven’t smelt a collection of ferrets….
Exactly. A large proportion of them were large males who still had their scent glands.
As entertainment, they were awesome. When alarmed, ferrets will puff their fur, hunch up and sort of hop sideways chittering away from whatever triggered them, inevitably hopping into something else that alarms them. Everyday after work, I’d dump them in the living room (using welding gloves), clean their cages, then sit in there and burn one while they ran around. Within seconds of the first one freaking out, there’d be 5-8 ferrets pin balling off furniture & each other. Good fun. I was an early cord-cutter, as cable had nothing comparable to offer-and I couldn’t really hear the tv over the din anyway. Google ‘ferret freak out’ to get an idea.
Anyway, some were damned rank-even shortly after a bath: I cannot imagine being in an enclosed space with one while trying to keep a plane in the sky
*cockpit, damnit; I meant to say cockpit.
With all the witty, erudite, and knowledgeable commenters here I never expected a COTD. A pleasant ending to an otherwise cruddy day-thanks!
As the author of the most witty, erudite, and knowledgeable comments on the site, I accept your win as being well deserved. 😉
A few years ago a medium sized passenger aircraft crashed in Africa for no apparent reason.
According to the sole survivor one of the passengers smuggled a crocodile in their hand luggage which somehow got free and terrorised everyone on board who then huddled in the back of the plane just as it was coming in to land. The centre of balance was thrown way off due to the weight of the passengers which was determined to be the cause of the crash.
Tropical fish are also transported by plane
I’ve seen enough A-Team I’m pretty sure the answer is drugged milk.
Postal worker here. It freaked me out the first time I walked by some equipment and there was a rooster doing his morning call.
A high end fancy rooster no less.
Kind of off-point, but both transport of animals on planes, and now chickens have been mentioned, so:
When I lived in Panama for a while in the 90’s, I learned (by observing it) how to carry a live chicken on an airplane.
We were flying out to a small island off the Atlantic side on a 10-passenger plane. One of the passengers who was definitely not a tourist needed to bring a chicken with him and there was no room in the cargo hold because, ahem, some tourist lady I might know and be married to, had too big a suitcase.
Completely unfazed when informed of that there was no room in the
innhold for his chicken, the chicken-owner (no one is Master of a chicken, right?) just pulled a sack out of his pocket and dropped it over the chicken’s head. He then picked up the sack and let the chicken roll around until its head was sticking out the mouth of the bag. Now the owner gathered the mouth of the bag around the chicken’s neck and merely grabbed the bag in his fist so the chicken just had its head sticking out above his fist.We then proceeded to fly for an hour over the Atlantic while this guy choked his chicken the whole way.
Look up Pilots for Paws. Does a lot of flying of pets for adoption, etc. a volunteer organization. But flying is tax deductible. Non pilots need to realize that many recreational pilots are looking for reasons to get more hours in. I don’t doubt that there is a ferret rescue organization somewhere. Even weasels need some love.
In the category of “we see what we expect to see”, I originally read that headline as “How the hell did Ferraris get into the plane?” That, combined with the photo of the small plane made me very curious and compelled me to click on the story. But I’m glad I did because I had missed TOSSABL’s comment in that other story ????
Ugh – emojis still aren’t allowed, I see.
I would think animal abuse would cover not mailing it. Though i am pretty sure the only live things you can mail are plants.
Oh, you can mail all kinds of animals! I’ve mailed a lizard myself (see comment below) and you can definitely get insects via mail-order, whether as pet food or as beneficials for your garden. What always blows me away though is that USPS is also the standard way to get chicks, as in baby chickens! It’s a tried-and-true method.
https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm
I worked for UPS decades ago, and one day, a box came down the belt labeled “HARMLESS LIVE TURTLES”. I picked it up and showed it to Billy, the loader next to me.
He took the box, said “Huh.”, shook it violently, then handed it back.
I learned something about Billy that day…
Billy failed the Voight-Kampff test that day.
I once put a live Argus Monitor (in a pillowcase) through the X-ray scanner at Logan Airport in Boston. This was in, oh, 2004 or so. The TSA agent seemed equal parts alarmed and confused. They let me through in the end (no rule against live reptiles, I did my research before flying) but requested that I please tell someone next time before I put her on the conveyor belt.
I also sent that lizard across the country via USPS more than once. Also perfectly legal and above-board. I don’t recommend it or anything—I was ill-equipped to care for that creature and eventually had to surrender her to someone who was able to take care of her properly, it was not my proudest moment. Some funny anecdotes came out of it, though.