Pet Cruelty at Mango Airlines (Durban to Cape Town)

On 26 August, I booked a flight from Durban to Cape Town with Mango. I needed to fly with my 8 week old parrot. Before booking my flight, I contacted Mango to find out the regulations of bringing a pet onboard. Mango Customer Care informed me that I needed a certificate for my parrot as well as a safe box to ensure my parrot's safety. When I checked in, the lady at the Mango counter gave me the required stickers to put on the box, which alerts others that it is a "Fragile parcel" and indicates "This way up" as well as "Live Animal Inside". Thereafter, I proceeded to the Fragile baggage handover to take my parrot through. The man working in this area asked me to un***** the box so that he can check that there were no weapons inside the box, to which I rep**** that the regulations stated that it be sealed so therefore I did not have the *****driver with me. He then proceeded to take the parrot without requesting the certificate (which they insisted I needed in order to fly).

When I landed in Cape Town, I was waiting for my luggage at the conveyer belt. After a few minutes I saw my parrot's box on the floor, abandoned at the conveyer belt. The box was also upside down and all the contents was on top of my bird inside the cage. This could have lead to him suffocating and it did injure his wing. No one notified me that my parrot (which is fragile) was going to be left on the floor and that the carriers would blatantly ignore the stickers which was necessary to ensure the safety of my 8 week old baby parrot. Additionally, I was not asked to present identification to collect my bird, which means that any stranger could have taken him.

After complaining to the carriers, they said it was given to them in that position and persisted to blame others. After waiting awhile for my other luggage, I saw multiple other animals abandoned on the floor, where they could have easily been injured or ******. Staff did not alert any passengers that this is where the animals would be, so it was only by chance that I saw him there.

After this traumatic experience, we attempted to contact Mango and inform them of the situation. They denied us access to speak with any form of management or someone that could assist.

Since we had to go through so many regulations and specifications to ensure the safety of our pet during travelling, we would expect the staff to go to the same lengths. One would expect there to be trained staff to handle these delicate parcels and a better management at Mango airlines and Airlines Company South Africa (Durban and Cape Town).