When we talk about Alaska Airlines' bird ban, it's easy to get lost in policy language. So I want to share one supporter's story — with her permission — because it puts a face on what this policy actually does to families in Hawaiʻi.

Our supporter and her husband live on the Big Island. They have an African Grey and a Rose-breasted Cockatoo. They've had these birds for 35 and 33 years. These aren't pets in the casual sense — they are family members who have been part of their household longer than many marriages last.

Their African Grey (pictured here) developed a heart condition. It's incurable. She can no longer talk, and she has balance issues. To get her the care she needs, our supporter has to fly her to Oʻahu — because there are currently no avian veterinarians in public practice anywhere in the State of Hawaiʻi. What Oʻahu offers are high-level veterinary clinics with advanced hospital facilities, long-term hospitalization capacity, and laboratory and investigational equipment that simply do not exist on the Big Island. For specialized avian care, inter-island air travel isn't a convenience — it's the only option.

Here is what our supporter's experience with Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines has been, and what their current policy forces her to do:

She cannot bring her sick bird into the cabin where she can monitor her. Instead, she must drive to the Hawaiian Air Cargo terminal, where her bird is checked in like freight — two hours before the flight. Cargo doesn't open until 7 a.m., so the earliest she can fly is 9 or 10 a.m. After landing on Oʻahu, she has to drive to retrieve her bird from cargo, then rush to her vet appointment, then race back to cargo by 3 p.m. to make the 5 p.m. return flight — because if she misses it, cargo closes at 7 p.m. (1 p.m. on weekends) and her bird is stranded on Oʻahu overnight.

The first time she did this, the airline was unable to locate her sick bird for an hour and a half after the plane landed. She missed the vet appointment entirely. She had to board her bird overnight at the veterinary clinic at a cost of $195 and stay with a friend, turning a single-day veterinary visit into a two-day ordeal.

The financial cost of a single veterinary visit now includes airfare that has risen from $60 each way to $106 each way, $195 to board the bird, and often a hotel room that runs at least $250 — costs that did not exist under the previous in-cabin policy.

She has written to both Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. She has posted on their public Facebook pages. No one at that airline has cared to respond.

Here is the part that should give Alaska Airlines pause: This is a solved problem.

When she moved to Hawaiʻi from Guam in 1999, she brought her birds in the cabin from Oʻahu to Kona on Aloha Airlines. Their hard-sided carrier is 11 x 18 x 12 inches and fits under the seat. That worked. For years. Without incident. The current policy is not a response to a safety problem — it is a regression from a system that was already working in Hawaiʻi a quarter-century ago.

Where We Are Now

I also want you to know that your signatures are not sitting idle.

Over the past several months, this campaign has been building a formal, professionally structured proposal for Alaska Airlines — one that lays out the operational case, the policy inconsistency, and a practical framework for a controlled pilot program to restore in-cabin bird travel, beginning with Hawaiʻi inter-island routes. The proposal documents the fact that Delta, Frontier, and Spirit currently allow birds in cabin. It documents that Alaska Airlines itself allowed birds in cabin before the Hawaiian Airlines merger. It addresses every concern the airline might raise — safety, noise, allergens, disease risk — with documented evidence. And it proposes a specific, low-risk pilot program that operates within Alaska's existing systems at no additional cost to implement.

Your 1,546 signatures are at the foundation of that effort. They are what give this proposal standing — the difference between one person writing a letter and a documented constituency presenting a case. That matters more than you may realize.

This issue has also drawn attention from professional veterinary communities and from BirdTricks.com, whose video brought many of you here. We are not alone, and the case is strong.

What You Can Do Right Now

If you have a story like the one above — about a bird denied veterinary care, a family separated from a companion, an impossible choice forced by this policy — please share it in the comments below or email me directly (gondwana@sbcglobal.net). Stories like these are the most powerful evidence we have, and they will be part of what we present.

If you haven't shared this petition recently, now is a good time. We are approaching the point where this proposal will be delivered, and the more voices behind it when it reaches the airline, the harder it is to set aside.

Thank you for standing with us. Every signature, every comment, every share has brought us closer to this moment.

Birds are family. They deserve safe access to care.