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Jeremy stuck a common chord in another thread, and I think I'll fire this off to Randy at AMDA and Paul at MAC, because if ANY legislation on this industry is to be implemented the very FIRST needs to be cargo priority and control by the airlines.

The airlines IMO kill more livestock than any other portion of the hobby through incompetance. Dead fish for the resturant industry carries much more priority than live aquarium animals with the airlines AND they get a cheaper freight rate to boot.

I have been lucky because I've managed to restrict 99% of my shipments to Southwest Airlines for the past 12-18 months and haven't had to file any freight claims. However it used to be much higher when I used the bigger carriers. I once had a carrier handling a shipment of fish outa Florida to Manchester, NH with a stopover to change planes midday in Philly. The animals left FL in the AM and reached PHL and were then misrouted to LAX!!! They got into LA at 11PM and were put on the redeye back to PHL and arrived at PHL on Saturday morning at 7am. They then sat in PHL until Tuesday because they were bumped for luggage and other priority cargo. I got the boxes on Tuesday afternoon and when we opended them obviously almost everything was dead or dying EXCEPT for a snowflake eel because those things are real troopers.

Accidents will happen but if the airlines were forced to treat these animals with the respect and diginity they deserve it would go along way to reducing the impact on the reefs.

OHH and it would also help if the airlines would require the cargo agents to actually read english so you don't have some illiterate SOB mistaking MHT for LAX! Put them somewhere safe like by the magnetometers
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JT

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Mick:

Unfortunately, LTF (Live Tropical Fish) cargo make up such a very small percentage of the freight the airlines carry. If we push the airlines too hard, we risk the chance of the airlines stopping LTF cargo all together. It has happened before.

Live flowers, mail, and corpses dominate the airlines. Too bad you can't hide fish shipments as live flowers but the weight would be an instant giveaway. ;-)

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monkeyboy

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Tom, how about when shipments don't show up and you call up one airport that it stopped at and they say "Well, we're not quite sure where it is..." That always brightens up my day.
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MattM

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Back when we used to deal with US Air...

Shipment from Florida to Manchester never shows up.

Call Manchester.

"Yes, we located your shipment, it's in Charlotte, NC".

Call Charlotte.

"Uh, that plane doesn't even stop here. It goes from Fort Lauderdale to Manchester via Pittsburgh."

Call Pittsburgh.

"No, it's in Charlotte."

"We just called Charlotte and thay said the plane doesn't even stop there."

"Well maybe it got on a different plane, why don't you call Fort Lauderdale."

Etc, etc, etc.

Four days later we get a call from the Post Office. "We've got several boxes here addressed to you from US Air in Boston. And there's postage due."

"Do they smell real bad?"

"We didn't open them..."

"Well don't, send tham back to US Air please."
 

danmhippo

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<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Kalkbreath:
<strong>I can fly to LA in Coach from Fiji for less then I can ship 10 boxes of live fish?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Well, Good for you, obviously you don't weigh as much and don't occupy as much cubic footage as 10 boxes of live fish.
 

BCReefer

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If you own a business or even if you are doing it from home wouldn’t FedEx be better. I deal with FedEx a lot and they are pretty good about tracking etc. of course I don’t know if FedEx delivers animals??
 

EmilyB

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<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by MattM:
<strong>Back when we used to deal with US Air...

Shipment from Florida to Manchester never shows up.

</strong><hr></blockquote>

I find that horribly upsetting that those poor things were plucked from their homes to die that way. So it must happen way too often,for I just heard a fellow at my LFS TODAY telling his boss that stray boxes had turned up at the airport days after the main shipment again.
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Kalkbreath

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<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by danmhippo:
<strong>

Well, Good for you, obviously you don't weigh as much and don't occupy as much cubic footage as 10 boxes of live fish.</strong><hr></blockquote>Yes, but I would think in the cabin would cost more than in the belly of the plane? Where do you sit? {Also, Myself and my luggage allowance..... would weigh about the same and take up the same cubic feet, as ten 35 pound fish boxes}
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Potter

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<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by BCReefer:
<strong>If you own a business or even if you are doing it from home wouldn’t FedEx be better. I deal with FedEx a lot and they are pretty good about tracking etc. of course I don’t know if FedEx delivers animals??</strong><hr></blockquote>

They would be more reliable. However, the cost per pound is astronomical for larger shipments. About 4 to 8 times the cost of air freight.

There is a substantial percentage of the consumer price already devoted to shipping costs, so I don't think a 200-500% increase in livestock prices would be well received.

P.S. This is Matt, I failed to notice that Scott was already signed in!

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: Potter ]</p>
 

Kalkbreath

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I just placed an order,`$600 dollars for the fish and $1400 for shipping? some boxes work out to be $24 for the fish and 96 for the shipping and permits! that makes the water in the bag worth three and a half times more then the fish!
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JeremyR

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Are you sure your tranship agent isn't padding the freight? That's why they always black that part out on the invoice they fax you
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fishfarmer

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<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote
If you own a business or even if you are doing it from home wouldn’t FedEx be better. I deal with FedEx a lot and they are pretty good about tracking etc. of course I don’t know if FedEx delivers animals??

I've dealt with FEDEX on a few occasions. They treat the box like a box. They may be speedy and have tracking, etc. but you better make sure the box is very sturdy, triple bagged, etc. The thing I don't like about FEDEX is if I have to ship fish eggs to New Hampshire or Massachusetts or even Pennsylvania. The box gets picked up and shipped to the main base in Kentucky then gets shipped back up north to it's destination. It's quicker for us to drive eggs to NH or MA than ship. I think FEDEX frowns upon shipping water. We've had a couple boxes leak(just packed with 5 lbs of ice) and our FEDEX delivery guy has complained. I think DHL is also prefers shipping things without water as well.

[ April 07, 2002: Message edited by: fishfarmer ]</p>
 

Kalkbreath

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<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jeremy Russell:
<strong>Are you sure your tranship agent isn't padding the freight? That's why they always black that part out on the invoice they fax you
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</strong><hr></blockquote>
Sorrry changed my mind

[ April 07, 2002: Message edited by: Kalkbreath ]</p>
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