It's a very good question.
There's a team-building exercise that a lot of people do. I don't know if you've ever had the chance to do it. You're blindfolded, and you have somebody guide you around. The game is to build trust. Most people realize that as they're walking, they don't have trust, even sometimes with people they're married to or are related to. It helps to build the trust factor.
I travelled here independently. If I'm travelling independently, and I am walking through an unfamiliar airport and have had to put my dog in the cargo hold--let's put the dog's situation aside--I am now putting my own health and safety at risk. I have to trust somebody I've never met. It is just some stranger who works for the airline who is going to walk me through and get me on a plane. If something happens, and we have to get off the plane in an emergency, I am required to wait until somebody can come and get me.
With my dog, I can get to the plane and get on the plane. I can go to the bathroom. I can function independently. When the door is opened and I can get off the plane, I can walk off the plane just like everybody else and go through the airport. In many situations, I don't even wait for passenger assistance. I just go. I tell my dog to follow and he follows the crowd all the way out of the airport. So it gives me independence and freedom. It gives me an increased quality of life.
The main factor, too, for me, is that if my dog is in cargo, there is undeniably going to be some kind of stress factor for an animal that is used to being at my feet, by my bed, in my office, under my desk, and at all times beside me. I have discussed this with my vet. Last year, I went to London, and there was the question of whether the dog could travel in the cargo hold. My vet said that he could travel in the cargo hold if he was heavily medicated. And it would take a minimum of 24 to 48 hours for the medication to be sufficiently out of his system at the other end for him to work in a safe manner. That would mean that, when getting to the airport at the other end, I could not just throw the harness on the dog and get out of the airport. For the next two days, I would be restricted as to what I could do, unless I had somebody with me to walk me around. Even at that point, again, if it's somebody I don't know, then I'm trusting somebody.
You know, I love my family. But the majority of my family, when they guide me, walk me into things and trip me over things because they're not paying attention the way my dog does.
So it is a safety factor at both ends and on the plane.