Per the AVMA:

An acclimation certificate is used to allow airlines to ship dogs and cats when the airline cannot guarantee compliance with animal welfare regulations, specifically the minimum temperature allowed by the regulations. Veterinarians may advise clients not to ship animals with transporters or airlines that cannot guarantee compliance with animal welfare regulations. In accordance with the Code of Federal Regulations 9 CFR section 3, regardless of the temperature range suggested by the owner/authorized agent or veterinarian, ambient temperatures listed in the acclimation certificate cannot be higher than 85 F for more than four consecutive hours while in animal holding areas of airport terminals or for more than 45 minutes while transferring the animal between the aircraft and the animal holding area.



I work at Ironwood Veterinary Clinic and I am proud to say that our veterinarians put an animals' health and well-being as a top priority. Our doctor's do not provide certificates of acclimation because airlines have not put animal's health as high as we have. The doctors have a responsibility to the pet, and saying they can survive in temperatures beyond what their body can regulate is irresponsible medicine, scratch that, BAD medicine and that is why this service is NOT provided to our clients.



Thank you!

Whitney

We will never go to Ironwood Veterinary Clinic Yuma again. We'd been taking our dog here since we got him as a puppy, i.e. loyal customers. We needed to get our dog papers in order to fly, standard stuff certifying he'd had his shots and was safe to go on a plane. Ironwood Veterinary Clinic Yuma provided those to us for a fee. On our return trip, we are at the airport with the papers, and Frontier Airlines says they need an additional paper - a 'letter of acclamation' - stating that the dog is used to temperatures of 75-95 degrees (as it is now 80 degrees outside). We are now in Denver, 2 hours until departure for San Diego. The airline won't take our word for it that we live in Yuma where it's 114 and 80 will if anything make our dog feel cool...but...We call Ironwood Veterinary Clinic Yuma from the check-in counter to ask them to fax the required sentence over to Frontier. In short, they kept us on the phone with them for OVER AN HOUR arguing back and forth, in sum saying they "can't" help us: they've already filled out all the papers required by the state. We explained that we needed HELP NOW, or we'd miss our flight. Dr. Perry suggested we see a vet in Denver. What?! In short, we missed our flight, and had to pay all kinds of fees-vet and airline-and missed getting back to work, all because Ironwood "couldn't" fax this paper. As a (human) doctor myself, I found this to be assinine, arrogant, ignorant, and just plain rude and insulting, not to mention unnecessary. Our Review: We will never go to Ironwood Veterinary Clinic Yuma again.