ABSTRACT
When dealing with live animals a wide variety of conditions, regulations and considerations are brought to bear. These apply to the animals themselves, for their health and wellbeing, but equally to the grooms and attendants looking after the animals in transit. The airlines transporting the animals must not only provide the right facilities – stalls, cages and safety levels – but they must also, in their own interests, ensure the integrity and safety of the aircraft. While horses, breeding stock and large zoo animals will usually be transported on board a freighter aircraft, large numbers of smaller animals – cats, dogs, monkeys and fish – are most likely to travel in the bellyhold compartments of passenger aircraft. The new widebody aircraft such as the Boeing 777 or 747-8 have considerable bellyhold cargo capacity and can easily accom - modate the cages of fully grown lions, tigers or cheetahs in their bellyhold space. The transportation by air of famous animals such as the Chinese pandas and killer whales often make the front pages of newspapers, but for the majority of animals, travelling is routine business.
