THE FIRST ONE CAME OVER ON THE HINDENBURG

 Giant rabbit dies on United flight

A  giant rabbit, on  track to become the world's largest. was found dead in the cargo hold  of  a  United  Airlines   flight, creating  another UA public relations challenge.

UPI reports  ten-month-old Simon, a 3-foot long  Prussian Giant Grey  rabbit  expected  to break  a  size record   currently  held  by  his four foot four inch father, arrived dead in the  cargo hold of a  United Airlines’  Boeing 767 when it arrived in Chicago from London.

Though airlines generally outfit planes' cargo holds to be comfortable,i t's not always consistent, says Sandy Parshall,  of the House Rabbit Society, a California-based nonprofit that promotes rabbit rescue and welfare. 

"The entire aircraft is pressurized, and not all pieces of the aircraft are heated," says Parshall, who is also a commercial pilot. "It generally gets pretty cold."

Anne Martin, the rabbit society's executive director, added that other stressors, such as noises or stimuli, could also be involved:

"Rabbits are prey animals. If there are barking dogs, that might be enough to stress them to the point of heart attack," 

says Martin.It was not clear when or how his death occurred, but breeder Annette Edwards  said a veterinarian  found the Leviathan lagomorph In good health prior to his flight.

“I’ve sent rabbits all around the world and nothing like this has happened before. The client who bought Simon is very famous. He’s upset.”

U.S. airlines reported the deaths of 35 animals aboard plane flights in 2015, the most recent available data, U.S. Department of Transportation statistics show. Fourteen of those were on United flights; the airline carried 97,156 animals that year.

 At 2.37 deaths per 10,000 transported animals, United has the highest casualty figures of any U.S. airline.

THE  UBERBUNNY  MIGHT  HAVE  FARED   WORSE ON  NORTH  KOREAN  AIR. 
A human United passenger recently lost two teeth and sustained a concussion when forcibly removed  from  an overbooked  UA  flight, and  in March,  the lagomorph-unfriendly  airline barred two Minnesotans  for wearing  fur leggings, a violation of  its passenger  dress code.