Flier Said She Had No Option but to Flush Her Pet Hamster

"I didn’t have any other options," says Belen Aldecosea, so she opted for a pretty awful one: She flushed her dwarf hamster down the toilet.

The 21-year-old Florida woman says she was compelled to do so because of Spirit Airlines, which she says verified twice on the phone that she'd be able to bring Pebbles on her Nov. 21 flight from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale. The Miami Herald reports that when she got to the airport, she says Spirit had changed its tune and wouldn't let the pet aboard. Aldecosea says she was stuck: Her nearest friends were hours away in Chambersburg, Penn., at Wilson College, a school she was leaving in order to have a painful but benign neck growth removed at home.

The medical issue created a time crunch. She says a Spirit rep had a suggestion: flush Pebbles.

And so Aldecosea says she spent 10 minutes crying in the stall where she did the deed. She says she's considering suing Spirit over losing Pebbles, who she says was classified as an emotional support animal.

Spirit denies the flushing recommendation occurred, though it did confirm Aldecosea was erroneously told the hamster would be permitted on board in a support animal capacity.

source

I don't know if I'm angrier at this stupid woman or the airlines.

Come onnn! FLUSH IT?


How utterly freakin' gross.

a reply to: silo13

PEOPLE!

Stop taking your pets on planes!

Take a bus or train if you want. Knowing flights, it'd probably take less time and it's cheaper!

The airline did her a favor now she knows that she doesn`t need a support pet. she flew to florida without a support pet so obviously she didn`t need it, she`s cured.
any 21 year old adult who needs a support hamster in order to leave the house probably isn`t very sane to begin with anyway so it`s not surprising that she drowned her support hamster in a toilet.

Emotional pet trend is already out of hand.

A dwarf hamster is a heck of a lot smaller than the pic above.

Drawf hammies are about the size of a pingpong ball after a large lunch.

Some say Pebbles is still swimming in the sewers below the airport to this day.

a reply to: silo13

......
This woman actually cared about this animal....?

Fedex ships live animals.....

disgustnuggetz.

stupid. selfish. child.

Ok, I really don't wanna take any sides in this Who Can Bring the Craziest Support Animal contest. For the record, I don't think a hamster is that crazy. It's at least 2 or 3 orders of magnitude below expecting the airline to accommodate your emotional support rhinoceros (that's what it will get to eventually if the airlines don't put their foot down somewhere).

But no matter where you stand on this issue, there is no excuse for this woman killing the hamster. She's basically saying, yes, I killed an animal because someone at the airline suggested it. Do these people have any concept of personal responsibility, at all? Even if an airline representative did suggest that - which they're denying happened - even if, you have to be a sick individual to think it's ok to kill your pet because someone else told you to. No one is responsible for the decision she made but her. She should be charged with animal abuse.

a reply to: silo13

A dwarf hamster is very small. It sits easily in the palm of a little 10 year olds hand.

The lady should have put pebbles in her purse and nobody would have been the wiser.

I only have sympathy for the hamster.

Sorry humans are well retarded. .. it's what we do.

Animal cruelty charges being pursued?

Just set it free.

Someone else would pick it up and take it home.

No need for euthanasia.

originally posted by: AMPTAH
Just set it free.

Someone else would pick it up and take it home.

No need for euthanasia.

That was my first thought too. Or if she was responsible enough to show up early for her flight (I doubt that, seems like the type who would show up 30 minutes later than the recommended time and then blame the airline when she can't get through security in time) you could go ask around the arrivals area if anyone leaving the airport would like a hamster. There are so many other things she could have done. This woman is sick.

a reply to: silo13

"The pet is so important to me, I must bring it with me on the plane."

"What, I can't board the plane with my pet? Screw it, it'll just have to die then."

At least one of those two statements should not be true.

originally posted by: silo13

"I didn’t have any other options," says Belen Aldecosea, so she opted for a pretty awful one: She flushed her dwarf hamster down the toilet.

The 21-year-old Florida woman says she was compelled to do so because of Spirit Airlines, which she says verified twice on the phone that she'd be able to bring Pebbles on her Nov. 21 flight from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale. The Miami Herald reports that when she got to the airport, she says Spirit had changed its tune and wouldn't let the pet aboard. Aldecosea says she was stuck: Her nearest friends were hours away in Chambersburg, Penn., at Wilson College, a school she was leaving in order to have a painful but benign neck growth removed at home.

The medical issue created a time crunch. She says a Spirit rep had a suggestion: flush Pebbles.

And so Aldecosea says she spent 10 minutes crying in the stall where she did the deed. She says she's considering suing Spirit over losing Pebbles, who she says was classified as an emotional support animal.

Spirit denies the flushing recommendation occurred, though it did confirm Aldecosea was erroneously told the hamster would be permitted on board in a support animal capacity.

source

I don't know if I'm angrier at this stupid woman or the airlines.

Come onnn! FLUSH IT?

How utterly freakin' gross.

Wait what the # is an emotional support pet? Unless your pets are work animals aren't most pets already just there for 'emotional support'?

stupid woman

originally posted by: dug88

originally posted by: silo13

"I didn’t have any other options," says Belen Aldecosea, so she opted for a pretty awful one: She flushed her dwarf hamster down the toilet.

The 21-year-old Florida woman says she was compelled to do so because of Spirit Airlines, which she says verified twice on the phone that she'd be able to bring Pebbles on her Nov. 21 flight from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale. The Miami Herald reports that when she got to the airport, she says Spirit had changed its tune and wouldn't let the pet aboard. Aldecosea says she was stuck: Her nearest friends were hours away in Chambersburg, Penn., at Wilson College, a school she was leaving in order to have a painful but benign neck growth removed at home.

The medical issue created a time crunch. She says a Spirit rep had a suggestion: flush Pebbles.

And so Aldecosea says she spent 10 minutes crying in the stall where she did the deed. She says she's considering suing Spirit over losing Pebbles, who she says was classified as an emotional support animal.

Spirit denies the flushing recommendation occurred, though it did confirm Aldecosea was erroneously told the hamster would be permitted on board in a support animal capacity.

source

I don't know if I'm angrier at this stupid woman or the airlines.

Come onnn! FLUSH IT?

How utterly freakin' gross.

Wait what the # is an emotional support pet? Unless your pets are work animals aren't most pets already just there for 'emotional support'?

Logic really has no place in this discussion.

My emotional support walrus would have appreciated the snack. What a waste.

I wrestle with severe social anxiety but I leave our cat at home.

Flushing an animal is just cruel.

Does everyone get a hamster when they find out they have a benign growth on their neck?
S*N*O*W*F*L*A*K*E*S*

In parts of the world they eat those things. That is a waste of a good meal.

Why yes, that *is* my emotional support cobra chomping on your leg. Why do you ask?

There is just so much wrong with this story on so many levels.

I don't even know where to begin. No one is innocent here ... except poor Pebbles.