The owner of Britain’s ugliest dog is supporting a petition to allow small pets to travel in the cabin on flights entering the UK.
Peggy the pugese has travelled the world with owner Holly Middleton to star in Marvel superhero film, Deadpool & Wolverine, after being crowned Britain’s ugliest dog in 2023.
Holly, based in Hull, told The Independent: “The government have a restriction in the UK, which means pets are allowed to fly out of the UK in the cabin of a plane, but they're not allowed to enter.
“Instead of being able to just enter the UK with a pet in the cabin, we have to find alternative routes when we're travelling back from either Europe or Canada or America.”
According to the owner of the famous pooch, "we can travel out of Edinburgh, with Air Canada directly over to Canada, but we can't book a return trip”.
She added that the “inconsistent” rules can cause “a bit of a headache” while travelling.
Peggy and her family were forced to take the Eurostar from France to Amsterdam, then board a ferry to Hull following a recent weekend in Paris.
The petition to allow small pets to travel in the cabin on flights entering the UK has been signed over 13,000 times.
It asks carriers to offer an “in-cabin travel option for small, fully documented pets on flights entering the UK”.
According to the petition, several countries within the EU allow vaccinated and microchipped pets to travel safely in the cabin.
Most commercial airlines in the UK do not allow pets in the cabin, with the exception of service dogs.
Government travel advice says pets have to travel as cargo on a plane unless “you’re flying on a chartered private plane or you’re travelling with a guide or assistance dog”.
Holly said: “The things are in place if I'm paying privately, but not commercially. It's just not consistent across the board.”
The petition will need to receive more than 100,000 signatures by 2 August for a government response.
“I believe allowing an in-cabin option would improve welfare and align the UK more closely with widely used global practices while maintaining biosecurity,” said petition creator Eirini Zartaloudi.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) told BBC News: “The Government takes the importation of pets seriously and is committed to preserving our high animal welfare and biosecurity standards.”
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