I’ve spent the last decade of my life jet-setting across the globe. In that time, I’ve seen some truly strange and remarkable things: drunk passengers, crazy turbulence, etc.
Perhaps naively, I’d thought I’d seen it all . That is until I came across a story of a woman who refused to stop breastfeeding her pet cat while on a Delta Airlines flight .
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Flying in an airplane can be a stressful experience.
Being a passenger on a plane means having to put up with a lot. In all my years of travel, I’ve come across everything from drunken disorderly passengers to crying babies.
In order to maintain your sanity, you need to be able to tune out everything that’s going on around you.
For the most part, this can be accomplished by equipping yourself with a half-decent sleep mask and a good pair of noise-canceling headphones. But every once in a while, you come across something you just can’t ignore.
Recently, a Delta Airlines passenger caused such a disturbance by refusing to stop breastfeeding.
Before you begin throwing around mom-shaming accusations, it should be noted that this young woman wasn’t breastfeeding a newborn baby, but rather a hairless Sphynx Cat.
The news first began to spread after an internal ACARS message was broadcast across social media.
The acronym stands for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. This is what airline pilots use to relay short text messages from the plane to ground control.
The message asserts that the passenger in seat 13A “is breastfeeding a cat and will not put cat back in carrier.”
The message also requests that the situation be handled by Delta Airlines’ Red Coat team after the plane disembarks. The Red Coat team is a special group of customer service agents, specially trained to handle exigent circumstances.
A flight attendant on board named Ainsley Elizabeth confirmed the validity of the ACARS message via TikTok.
“This woman had one of those, like, hairless cats swaddled up in a blanket so it looked like a baby,” Ainsley Elizabeth said . “Her shirt was up and she was trying to get the cat to latch and she wouldn’t put the cat back in the carrier.”
When the woman got off the plane, she was swiftly met by security.
They reprimanded the woman and gave her a stern warning that she was never to do that again — unless she wanted to risk receiving a lifetime ban from flying Delta Airlines.
Delta also made sure to reiterate their policies when it came to breastfeeding mothers:
“Delta fully supports a woman’s right to breastfeed onboard Delta and Delta Connection aircraft and in Delta facilities,” the airline’s policy reads . “Breast pumps are allowed on board, at the airport, and if you prefer — many airports do offer private lactation rooms or spaces.”
The airline’s policies also clearly state that traveling with animals is permitted — under certain conditions.
Small cats and dogs are permitted within the cabin but must be stored in a ventilated carrier kennel . At no point in time are passengers permitted to remove their pets from their enclosure.
This extends to emotional support animals, which are no longer allowed by most airlines.
After some passengers began requesting that their peacock, duck, snake, and even their horse be allowed to fly with them —the Department of Transportation ruled that only trained dogs could qualify as service animals.
This spells bad luck for all those breastfeeding cat moms out there.
Once again, let me reiterate that a woman should never be shamed for breastfeeding her human child, regardless of where she happens to be. However, if she attempts to start nursing an animal outside her own species — all bets are off.
