Bear with me.
Despite opening up the new scanner (which cost an arm and a leg, no doubt) for the transport of larger animals, the airport is not animal friendly. I flew out of T1 recently and was told that T2 had an "animal relief area", for the odd pet that travels but primarily for service animals like guide dogs. Makes sense.
Walked through to T2 and saw that this room was basically the size of a small toilet cubicle (i.e., not big enough for more than one person and one dog, and definitely wouldn't fit someone in a wheelchair), and had a bowl of dirty water and half a piece of filthy fake grass (just thrown onto the tile, sliding around) that stunk the entire room. Not fit for purpose at all, and looks likely they just put a patch of the cheapest fake grass in a storage closet.
It's years behind North American airports, where you can find proper little areas for animals. Continental airports are also far ahead of us, with full on dog parks so pets and service animals can relieve themselves, stretch their legs, and have a drink.
As someone who's friend has a genuine guide dog (for the blind), the pet relief area in our main airport is a joke, and honestly would prohibit most people with service dogs from being able to travel. Surely we can do better for these people?
Edit: not sure why I’m getting downvoted, anyone who knows someone with a guide dog knows how tough it can be for them on a daily basis. We should at least try and allow them to visit family, go on holidays, etc, with less stress than they’re already carrying? Plenty of other airports have a managed it.
by financehoes
11 comments
>Bear with me
Were you really expecting to get it through security?
It’s not well equipped for humans either.
You’re not wrong. Update this with the reply to your complaint.
Have they not applied for planning permission to address this recently?
My wife and I found two street dogs in China, brought then with us when we moved to the US, and again when we moved to Ireland.
When we arrived in Ireland we had no idea where the dogs were, at all. No one did. We asked all around at helpdesks and the hi vis chaps, couldn’t get an answer. Some chap from a shipping company told us they could be at the shipping terminal. It’s about a 500m-1km walk from terminal 1, a dingy looking office building. It was more chance than on purpose that we were able to find our dogs after hours of looking. Considering these dogs were on the tarmac in Texas summer, and then on planes for 12+ hours, we were stressed to find them.
Abu Dhabi has people who will walk your dogs, and if you put signs on the crate the airport staff in a lot of airports will feed and give them water, but all in all it is always very stressful.
I completely agree, it’s an absolute joke.
Let alone for humans …
I’ve never needed to travel with a dog but I’ve seen the area you’re talking about and you’re right, it’s extremely grotty.
Next month we’re driving from Germany to Ireland with our animals. I don’t feel comfortable bringing them by plane
On a slightly related topic, if you bring a cat on board with you, make sure you trim the cats nails before leaving the house.
I didn’t think about having to take the cat out of its carrier for security and now I have the scars to remind myself for next time.
>bowl of dirty water
Dirty water has no effect on animals. Thats why dogs/cats/cows/pigs all drink from lakes/puddles, practically anywhere outside that has water.
Suppose you want them drinking bottled water?
We don’t even build enough houses for people in the country so I’m not surprised by this. The gov / companies are so woefully inept in so many things it’s hard to know where to start.