WestJet’s Position Statement:
Company reply (10/13/2011 6:23:33 PM)
Dear Rachel,Thank you for contacting us for clarification on our pet acceptance guidelines regarding ferrets. We appreciate your passion for your pet and hope that this letter helps you to understand why we have chosen to exclude ferrets from in-the-cabin travel.
We have many different guest promises that we have developed and implemented to ensure our guests have a safe and enjoyable flight. For in-cabin pet travel, we choose to include the most common household pets. Onboard guest experience is important to us and we have a thorough process that we use to verify all major decisions that could affect the experience our guests may have while on one of our flights.
Unfortunately, for safety and maintenance reasons, we do not permit animals that are capable of squeezing their bodies into small areas into the cabin and /or animals that have a natural instinct to bite or dig. While we never plan on having an animal out of its kennel in the cabin, it can happen and we want to do everything we can to ensure that this does not occur in the future.
We hope to have the pleasure of welcoming you aboard again.Kind Regards,
Marguerite
WestJet Guest Relations
First of all, I’d like to point out that while this reply is less than satisfactory, at least WestJet replied to me, unlike AirCanada, who simply gave me a receipt of my email and never got back to me.
So there are a number of WestJet’s concerns that I’d like to address with this post, therefore list time:
WestJet only allows the “most common” pets.
Ferrets are very commonly kept as pets in North America. Ferrets, which are mustelids and have been domesticated for over 2500 years, are the third most common uncaged pet in America, with an estimated ferret population of over ten million in the US alone. Source.
WestJet doesn't permit animals capable of squeezing their bodies into small areas, animals that naturally dig, or bite.
Hang on! Cats are very capable of squeezing their bodies into tight spaces, more specifically, due to their lack of a true collarbone, they can fit their bodies through any space large enough to fit their heads. Even fat cats can fit into impressively small spaces.
And oh hey look they allow Chinchillas! Another animal that is very good and squeezing into tight spaces!
Well at least they don't allow any animals that naturally like to dig right? Oh wait...
Well they don't allow notorious chewers do they? Oh.
So basically, they won't allow ferrets on board because they don't allow animals that bite, dig, or can squeeze into small spaces.... but that's an outright lie because pretty much every animal they allow on board performs at least one of these behaviours.
So, do ferrets naturally dig, bite, or fit into small spaces?
Ferrets do not bite or chew any more than a cat or dog. A ferret's teeth are very similar to a cat's set of teeth, though of course their mouths are a bit smaller. First image is a cat, second two images are ferrets. They will chew and swallow things if they think it might be food, however, I don't really think that is cause for an airline to be concerned.
As mentioned earlier, cats do not have a true collarbone, and this is what allows them to fit through any opening the size of their head. The same is true of ferrets, if there was a large enough opening they could get out.
Do ferrets dig? Some of them definitely do. My own ferret has very little interest in digging so far, but since ferrets are descendent from animals that tunnel after rodents and rabbits, they often will enjoy digging in sand boxes or in the yard if you let them.
So, like cats and dogs, ferrets will chew a bit, they will dig a bit and they are pretty flexy. Well, so long as the carrier has no small holes in it, the ferret will be unable to escape, to that's one problem solved as all soft carriers, no matter what animal is in them, must be checked over for damage prior to boarding.
Ferrets chew no more than a cat or dog, and with very similar teeth, I would imagine it would be tough job to attempt to chew through a high density carrier. And yes, ferrets dig - but there is no way they are getting through high density cloth or hard plastic!
The only way I could see a ferret escaping it's carrier is if it worked the zipper open, but this is easy to stop, as you can simply use a zip-tie to prevent the zippers from moving.
I am planning to send another email to WestJet to find out what they have to say about this, so hopefully they will respond!
