Weird Animals That Insane Plane Passengers Actually Tried To Take Onboard Their Flights

Smugglers are always trying to pull the wool over the eyes of airport security. And a lot of them try everything in their power to sneak in a bunch of wild and exotic animals to trade for money. Sadly, these animals often become fodder for research, food, clothing and even medicine.

But not everyone’s a smuggler who’s trying to take a weird animal on a plane. Because on rare occasions, you someone actually needs to take an animal with them on their flight for emotional support.

Either way, these creatures are often at risk. But so are the unsuspecting passengers. So here are the craziest animal finds at airport security.

A Woman Was Denied Emotional Support From Peacock

A photographer and performance artist named Ventiko, who is based off of New York City, bought an extra ticket for Dexter, her emotional support peacock. But United Airlines told her she couldn’t bring the peacock aboard the flight intended to take her from New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport to LA because it didn’t meet the size and weight guidelines.

Man Tries Smuggling Slippery Eels On A Plane

[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id=”RTK_K67O” mobile_id=”RTK_5yk0″]

European glass eels are a delicacy in Hong Kong, which is why a man in his 60s was attempting to illegally smuggle 600,000 of them under a bunch of chilled fish before he was stopped at the Heathrow Airport.

Grant Miller, of the national Border Force CITES at Heathrow stated: “Due to their conservation status, it was important to repatriate them alive and well.” The illegal eels are thought to be worth £1.2 million.

Emotional Support Pig Gets The Boot

A US Airways passenger, who was not identified, brought a pig aboard her flight. But the pig didn’t offer much emotional support. In fact, it lashed out when the woman tied it to the armrest.

According to passenger Robert Phelps, the pig had become disruptive and a flight attendant asked the woman to move to the front, but she eventually got off the plane.

Birds Get Socked And Confiscated

Xia Jian Pan had strapped two endangered birds wrapped in socks to her body and then casually walked through the Tom Bradley International Terminal checkpoint.

One of the birds was taped to the woman’s chest and the other to her leg. US Fish and Wildlife officers apprehended the woman on suspicion of smuggling and exporting the birds out of the US.