Re: The Strange News Around the World Thread
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 2:50 pm
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/30/trave ... index.html
When US Airways passenger Robert Phelps first saw the woman coming down the aisle of the plane, he thought she had a "really big dog" or a stuffed animal thrown over her shoulder.
It was about 6:10 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving, and Phelps was waiting to take off from Connecticut's Bradley International Airport for Washington. He thought it could be a service animal, but service animals are usually in crates, he thought to himself.
As she got closer, there was no denying that the woman was carrying a big brown pig, perhaps between 70 and 80 pounds, Phelps said.
"Everybody was trying to surmise what it could be, because no one thought it was a pig," he said. "Other than a Fellini movie, where would you see a person with a pig?"
The passenger was allowed to bring the pig on board as an "emotional support animal" under Department of Transportation guidelines, a US Airways spokeswoman said.
Apparently, it was not meant to be. Before the plane took off, the passenger and her pig were kicked for being "disruptive," spokeswoman Laura Masvidal said.
How disruptive? Fellow passengers told the Hartford Courant that the big brown pig stank up the cabin of the tiny D.C.-bound aircraft and defecated in the aisle.
Phelps watched in amusement and horror as the pig began "dropping things" in the aisle while his owner stowed her belongings. When she tied him to the armrest and tried to clean up after him, he began to howl.