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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSpirit Airlines employee told student to flush emotional support hamster down the toilet
WTF is wrong with people?
This whole "emotional support" animal excuse is getting out of control.
Assuming this story is correct, both sides need to be held accountable... whomever told her to flush the critter,
and the girl for actually doing it (when she could have easily given it to someone that was leaving the airport).
Belen Aldecosea, 21, of Miami Beach, Florida, told the Miami Herald that she contacted Spirit Airlines before her flight from Baltimore to South Florida on Nov. 21, 2017, regarding traveling with her dwarf hamster, Pebbles. Aldecosea claimed the airline told her it was not a problem to bring her hamster on the flight.
However, when the student arrived at the airport she said the airline refused to let Pebbles on the plane. Aldecosea said she did not have many options since her family was in Florida and her friends were hours away. The student claimed a Spirit employee suggested she either flush Pebbles down the toilet or let the animal free.
Aldecosea skipped her flight and tried to rent a car instead, but said she was too young to rent one. So she did what she felt was the most humane choice.
She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet, Aldecosea said. I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the stall.
The student said she considered letting Pebbles run free outside but could not bear thinking of her hamster freezing to death or getting hit.
I didnt have any other options, she said.
http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/02/08/spirit-airlines-employee-told-student-to-flush-emotional-support-hamster-down-toilet-student-alleges.html
lindysalsagal
(20,730 posts)Seriously.
Is this college student getting financial aid?????
dhol82
(9,353 posts)Saw it elsewhere. Does not make sense.
This girl is going to flush her emotional support animal down a chemical toilet just because she needs to get onto a flight leaving in nine hours?
Not buying it.
Besides,this popped up on Fox. That alone makes the story suspect.
Henry Krinkle
(208 posts)NBC news
USA Today
NY Post
CBS News
HuffPo
Time
Chicago Tribune
I believe all the news sources are accurately reporting what they were told,
but what they were told might not be accurate (or even the truth).
It might not make sense why she'd do something like that, but it also doesn't make sense
to make something like that up. Either way, she's going to be loved tenderly by the Internet.
4Chan alone will make her life a living hell.
LisaL
(44,974 posts)dhol82
(9,353 posts)Who would flush their support animal down the loo???
I think this poor child made a very poor choice. Which ever one it was.
blogslut
(38,016 posts)LisaL
(44,974 posts)Airline admits she was told she could fly with the hamster, but it wasn't accurate, and when she showed up, she wasn't allowed to fly with the hamster.
So which part is the hoax?
Henry Krinkle
(208 posts)IANAL, but claiming the airline told her to do that, and the way this has gone viral, seems
like a solid defamation case by Spirit Air.
Gothmog
(145,558 posts)Eugene
(61,948 posts)Source: USA Today
Christal Hayes, USA TODAY Published 6:22 p.m. ET Feb. 8, 2018
The lawyer for a student who says Spirit Airlines told her to flush her emotional-support hamster down the toilet says she's still distraught over the incident but now has a replacement rodent for comfort.
Belen Aldecosea's account of what happened after she checked into her November flight from Baltimore to South Florida which has gone viral on social media comes as airlines have been struggling with policies regarding comfort animals onboard flights.
Aldecosea's attorney, Adam Goodman, acknowledges there isn't audio or video proof showing a Spirit employee suggesting she flush her hamster, but he believes his client.
"It's hard, but you really have to look at the circumstances because this whole thing only makes sense with someone telling her to (flush the animal)," Goodman told USA TODAY. "...This is a situation where there weren't body cameras or anything."
-snip-
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/08/student-who-says-she-flushed-comfort-hamster-down-toilet-spirit-airlines-flap-has-replacement-rodent/320062002/
Codeine
(25,586 posts)linuxman
(2,337 posts)Someone buy me a hat. If this is true, I'll fucking eat it.
StevieM
(10,500 posts)She was not emotionally equipped to resist the coercion she was subjected to. The airline placed her under duress and should be ashamed of themselves.