Posted by: Kix

This week’s story is actually ripped from the real headlines of the week:  TINY TURTLE CAUSES TAXIING PLANE TO RETURN TO GATE where sisters threw it away!

The caged 2-inch turtle caused a crew to turn around a taxiing plane, take the girl and her sisters off the flight and tell them they couldn't bring their pet along. The sisters threw the animal and cage in the trash and returned to their seats crying after AirTran Airways employees on the jet way said they couldn't care for the turtle while their father drove to retrieve it. Two days later, however, Carley Helm was reunited with Neytiri even though at first the family thought the pet was emptied with the trash.

Here’s the rest of the story...Carley was heading home to Milwaukee after visiting her father in Atlanta with sisters Annie and Rebecca when all this happened. Rebecca said the three were led onto the jet way and told they'd have to get rid of the baby red ear slider named Neytiri after the princess in the movie "Avatar" if they wanted to re-board.  "I asked, 'what do you mean get rid of it?' and they said 'throw it away,'" she said. "I was very sad, and I felt bad for my littlest sister because it was her first pet and she was planning to take care of it herself."

While the sisters say they were told to put the animal in the trash, AirTran says they chose that themselves despite an offer to fly later at no extra charge.  AirTran company policy bars animals other than cats, dogs and household birds in the cabin citing a Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that says reptiles have been known to carry salmonella bacteria. The sisters say they made it past security screeners and a gate agent before boarding. One flight attendant told them to stow the cage under their seat.  But with the flight rolling toward its takeoff, a different attendant told them the turtle wasn't allowed in the cabin.  Rebecca called their father, and he began driving back to the airport. She asked an AirTran employee to make arrangements with her father to look after the pet until he could get there, but the employee refused.  The airline said they don't have the personnel or the facilities to care for people's pets.  Rebecca asked if throwing the pet away would allow for them to get back on the flight.  The gate agent did not tell the sisters what to do but said they could not get on the plane with the turtle.
 
Half an hour later, the sisters' father called saying he wanted to come look through the trash.  The gate agent looked, couldn't find the turtle and assumed the trash had been emptied.  Meanwhile, the ramp supervisor had rescued the turtle from the trash "out of his own compassion" and given it to another crew member who took it home for her 5-year-old son. Once that crew member found out the original owners wanted it back the airline arranged for the turtle to fly as cargo to Milwaukee.  The sisters' mother reported what happened to animal rights group PETA which sent a letter to AirTran demanding an investigation and disciplinary action.  Rebecca says her sisters "are very happy to have the turtle back."