Flight attendant Steven Slater is not a hero

Editor, The Times:

There’s no politically correct way of saying this: JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater’s behavior was reprehensible [“Air rage soars as airlines cut back,” page one, Aug. 13].

Even more so is the press attention given and the hero status many accord him. Our priorities and grasp are way out of whack here. We have deep unemployment. Those with jobs are lucky.

Customer service is about all we have left in America. So those with service jobs, whether at JetBlue, Walmart or wherever better understand that the customer is king. Does that mean customers (or passengers) may behave disgracefully? Absolutely not!

The point here is, once again, the public is playing victim in this JetBlue incident. Praising Slater for totally unprofessional behavior condones conduct that decimates what’s left of our service-based economy. Prosecute, as appropriate, the woman alleged to have provoked Slater.

Put Slater off the payroll. I am sure he will delight in his 99 weeks of unemployment.

— Peter Loeb, Sequim

Animals shouldn’t be transported via plane

I take great exception to reporter Carol Pucci’s categorizing “even the treatment of pets” as last in problems associated with air-travel difficulties after delays, missed connections and lost baggage.

Is a missed connection more important that the death of a living, feeling creature? The airlines must stop treating animals as baggage — and better yet, must stop transporting them. After the recent tragic case of 700 puppies dying in the air, en route to new owners from “breeding facilities” (read “puppy mills”), steps should be taken to stop unethical breeders from advertising and selling their “products” online and then air-freighting these defenseless animals to their new, probably unsuspecting, owners.

— Nancy Pennington, Seattle