S & M Airlines (NoFX)

We had all the paperwork completed to move to Sweden. We arrived at Miami International Airport (MIA) via my son Richard driving my fathers truck. Our dogs Saga and Ky were in the back in their new crates along with the ton of luggage. The porters helped up load everything onto carts and took us to the counter at British Air. While standing there, there were only a few people in line. We thought since we had the dogs that there was a special check in. Ahh, no! As time went on they started checking people in. The line was now stretched to around the corner and when I asked the reservationist when we were going to get checked in, she said one of us had to get in line. So Lars went around the corner and stood in line while the dogs cried for him and I stood there trying to calm them down. A supervisor heard the dogs and told the lady to process us next. While getting our tickets, a man came out from behind the wall with a camera. He told us "Your dogs will not be flying with you today." I looked at him like he had 4 heads. "Oh yes they are!" I replied. He told us that both British Air and we would be charged with animal cruelty in London because the dogs crates weren't large enough. Now, the dogs were fine. They had room to sit, stand, etc. but apparently they needed a bedroom. Ky could go into Saga's crate but we would have to find a larger crate for her.
With an hour and a half left to flight, I ran down to a car rental kiosk, looked up and called the nearest Petsmart pet store (with the help of the car rental guy) to see if they had an extra large crate, hailed a cab/van and was off to downtown Miami in search of a larger crate. I got to the pet store to find the extra large crate the gentleman told me about on the phone was the same size as the one Saga was already in. I broke down. The store manager came over and asked what was going on and within a few minutes she said there was one larger crate in the back and sent the guy to get it. The crate cost nearly $300 (choke). We loaded it into the back of the cab and hauled ass as fast as we could to the airport. We made it back in time to be xrayed and board the plane.
I need to bitch a little about this. First of all, there is nothing on the BA website about a European regulation size for animal crates. Secondly, all the paperwork and testing that a pet owner must go through is expensive and time consuming. You would think that the the airlines, the U.S.D.A. or the vet's office would have this info about crate size regulation but they don't. When we called BA to register the dogs to fly, they asked the dogs weights, the dimensions of the crates but never mentioned anything about crate size regulations. This was an unneccessary, emotionally draining experience. I pity any other pet owner that has to go through this.