I havent had to deal with this yet, but here's the way I see it.

If the animal dies in transit, SOMEONE has to pay for it. So, who should pay for it? Is it the buyers fault? Not at all. Is it the shippers fault? Not all. As long a some sort of guarantee is expressed before the sale.
However, as a customer, it sucks twice as bad to have to buy a dead animal, than it does to be a shipper and just eat the cost of an animal that died in shipping.

So, the way I see it is that the buyer should not be penalized for something the shipping company did.
The easiest thing a shipper can do is send another animal to replace the dead one. This way they're only out the shipping costs. Again, it's just the lesser of two evils. Neither party is at fault here. Hopefully the shipper can make a claim with the shipping company and recover some of those costs involved. I assume this only works if you're a verified live animal shipper through someone like FedEx or Delta.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

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