If you read the article, you can tell she is crazy. The airline only told her that she couldn't bring it on-board, and SHE decided the best solution was to flush it. Even said it was more humane than letting it go.
Crazy bitch. She should have handed it over to the airports animal control and they'd have called the SPCA and had it rehomed. If I ever met this girl I'd kick her in the cunt and pummel her... that poor hamster. Makes me so angry when animals suffer at the hands of cruel and stupid people.
Some airlines let emotional support animals (dogs included) on planes... A friend of mine who has a service dog says its a real problem for legitimate service dog/handler teams. An emotional support animal is someone's pet, and that person has a note from a psychiatrist saying they need the emotional support animal. The note can be used for the dog owner to have a dog in a no-aminals apartment, for example. However, given that this is just a regular old pet, while they're wonderful they have no extensive obedience training. It costs tens of thousands of dollars to train a service dog. If you put your regular pet on an airplane it might get scared or be extremely stressed by the loud noises. If it reacts very badly - a guy sitting next to a someone with his large emotional support dog on his lap got bitten when the dog freaked out - then that reflects poorly on service animals, because people assume that's what they are, and people with disabilities have to deal with the consequences.
Full-on, corn fed cunt.