Shipping Chinchillas

Now, you know I love you all, and of course, there's no such thing as a stupid question.  I've always said, if you don't know, you don't know.  No problem -- ask.

But jeez, sometimes I wonder if people have any common sense.

Just this week, I must have at least 7 emails asking if shipping is safe.

No, not at all.  They allllllll die on the flight.  That's why I offer it, so that people can pay a small fortune to receive a chinchilla that's DOA (dead on arrival).

^ that's sarcasm, in case you can't tell.

I mean... yes, I suppose, if you have no idea what shipping entails, you may want to know how it works and all that (which is on my shipping info page, which apparently no one reads).  But I mean, if you know me, you know I love my chins and wouldn't do anything to hurt them, so, I would tend to think that would lead to the following thought of... it must be safe, because if they were all going to die, she wouldn't offer it. 

I mean, right?

I have never had a chin die, or heck, even get ill from shipping.  Neither has Jim with chinchillas.com, and believe me, they ship out about 300 chins a year, all around the world.  Even more chances for them all to die horrible deaths in that horrible climate controlled compartment.  These animals are treated WAY better than luggage... that's also why checking a bag is like $25 and shipping a chinchilla is like $200. 

I'm happy to answer all questions, of course... but sometimes I really wouldn't mind if people would step back for a second and really think about what they're asking.  I mean, otherwise, this is the thought process:

Oh I see she ships.
I don't like airlines.
Oh I wonder if it's safe?
I see she's shipped a lot of chins and the new owners have commented that they love their chins, on that same facebook post, so I guess they got there ok....
No, now that I think about it, must not be safe, I MUST tell her that, as a condition to surrendering my chinchillas, she CANNOT ship them.

Uh-huh.  There's a ton of rules and regulations as far as shipping animals.  Yes, I am aware that some animals have died during shipping, but if you notice, that's usually during the summer when it's ridiculously hot, not when it's 30 degrees outside with cold-loving critters.  We can't even ship them when it's so hot that they'll fry, you know why?  Because the airlines don't want them to die either....