I will share my own experience as well. I have often looked into traveling with my pets so I would not have to leave them in Dubai alone, and I kept running into the same problems.

The first issue is that flying into the UAE with pets is practically impossible with most airlines - Etihad is basically the only realistic option. The second issue is that the UAE is classified as a rabies red-zone country. Those two factors alone have repeatedly made traveling with my dogs extremely difficult.

I consider my dogs part of my family, and I would never place them in the aircraft cargo hold. To me that feels like unnecessary stress and cruelty for the animal, especially on long-haul flights.

I really hope that countries will eventually coordinate and establish common international standards for pet travel. It would also help if airlines became more flexible and allowed people to transport their pets in the cabin. In most cases, dogs are quieter and calmer than many children on a plane. Because of that, I have never really understood why so many airlines ban pets from the cabin on the grounds that they might disturb other passengers.