I think the girls were stupid to try and fly with a turtle - at least being obvious about it. (I have no problem with them sneaking it on the plane.) But, the outcome of trashing a live animal is ridiculous and inhumane. Really, they could have held it in the front for Dad to pick up. Did they really expect young children to make the appropriate decision?

Young children? We're talking about a 22 year old.

ETA: A 22 year old and her father who was on the phone as part of the decision making process.

There are few concepts I hate more than "liability". I know it's pointless to fight it, but I still feel the rising tide of liability has tied our hands and made small, everyday injustices more common. The employment issues are a good example.

Don't worry, GD has talked to me about this in very plain, sensible terms a million times and I still don't like it.

I wonder how much of this stuff is prevalent in other countries.

Things Jen does not like that aren't going away any time soon:

Liability issues
Lobbyists
Logrolling

I don't know what it is about the letter L. Again, no need to convince me these are necessary, I know, I know, and I hate hate hate it.

</derail>

How about Lallygagging? (I don't know what logrolling is - it must be a pop culture thing. ;))

Why did spell check change Lollygagging to Lallygagging?

Who's Lally and why are they gagging her?

The thing is, you don't even need to get into the liability issue with this. They broke the rules, they were given options, they refused those options. It's entirely on them.

Why won't anyone think of the TURTLE!!!!!!!!!

I'm pissed that A) someone gave them back the turtle and B) PETA went after the airline and not these dummies.

Wait, she got the turtle back, right?
All is well with little Neytiri.

Edit to add:
I think whoever told the girls to throw away the turtle should be reprimanded. The kid was 10, she felt pressured, she threw the turtle away. She made a mistake. Kids do that. She was holding up a flight and panicked. Yeah, she could/should have opted for the next flight, but didn't. She learned a huge lesson.
Of course, the airline is saying they didn't tell her to do that... So who knows.

Based just on what I read in the article, I don't think anyone from the airline told her to throw it away (just my opinion). Unfortunately, unless multiple third-party independent witnesses come forward to corroborate one way or another, we will probably never know the truth on that detail.