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By Christopher Elliott

Travel columnist

updated 4:00 p.m. ET June 19, 2008

Christopher Elliott Travel columnist • Profile • E-mail

Passengers have been saying it for years, most recently this week. And now at least one airline has confirmed it: air travel stinks.

Literally.

An American Airlines flight from Miami to Bogotá was delayed more than two hours yesterday because a skunk found its way into the cargo hold.

”We don’t have any idea how the skunk got on,” Tim Wagner, an airline spokesman, told the Miami Herald.

The airborne skunk episode is only the latest in a series of animal-meets-airline incidents.

In New Delhi, dogs, jackals and foxes are keeping the airport’s controllers on their toes, reports the Times of India.

Air travel really is going to the dogs.

Delhi also has a problem with lizards, which are being blamed on the recent monsoon rains.

Are animals suddenly attracted to airplanes? Unlikely.

If anything, it’s the other way around. People are noticing these flying furball stories and connecting dots to make a broader point about the indignities of air travel.

Now that’s newsworthy.

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