My brother’s GF smuggled her pet bat into England from Canada (in a sock, in her pocket, on an airplane).
It did not thrive in England; the damp killed it. She was very sad.
So she froze its little body and took it back to Canada, for burial.
Given that bats are a well-known rabies vector, I shudder to think of what offcials would make of an attempt to smuggle a live (or dead) bat.
I traveled to The Netherlands several years ago.
I know they have socialized medicine, which seems to include a yorkie in every bag. No matter where one went, restaurants, grocery stores, everywhere, there are (usually) women with large totes with a yorkie sticking out of it. I did see a few men with them too.
Most of the time, they were very well behaved. Just once, I remember a little dog barking and running around. The waiter asked the lady to leave, but she refused. Nothing more was done, so it appeared that it wasn’t against the law.
But then, there were also people riding horses as transportation in the middle of The Hague.
I’d guess a lot of people have snuck dogs or cats into motels when traveling? Pretty easy at a motel where you’re parked right in front of your room’s door. I never stay at hotels anyway. I hate carrying my luggage to the room.
More and more motels are pet friendly and no sneaking is required.
A few months before she died, my mother had a major stroke and ended up on a floor in the hospital that was a rehab floor; she really missed our dogs, so I asked her doctor if I could bring my little Papillon Jay up to visit her. He said I could, but I would have to figure out how to get the dog past the security and up to the 4th floor.
No problem. He was very quiet & well trained, and I had a big tote bag. I put him in the bag, he laid down, and I placed a few magazies and such sticking out the top, over him. I slipped him into the hospital several times and never got caught.
My sister sneaked her cat into a motel once and the furry little idjit (the cat, not my sister*) disappeared into a hole in the wall in the bathroom. Sister spent several hours freaking out and eventually managed to lure him back into the room.
*She’s not furry or little. But don’t tell her I said that.
I don’t have any ferrets right now, unfortunately, but when I did I regularly took one of my ferrets (and once in a while one of the other two) to stores. It would be in the winter, and they would sit in the sleeves of my jacket, sticking their noses out through the openings. I guess I had unusually well behaved ferrets.
When I was working as a software contractor in a fairly big insurance company around Boston, I would take that ferret to work with me. He’d sleep next to my screen on the desk most of the day. I guess they were used to weird contractors.
My dog is 60lbs now but when she was a puppy I needed to get some groceries. Not wanting to leave her in the car, I didn’t sneak her in but instead put her into the shopping cart where a kid would usually sit - I just laid her across that little seat. She was quiet and well-behaved, and I checked out just like that. Got a few compliments, too.
Back in 1970, before X-rays, I took my hamster on the plane in my camera bag. Glad I did, because we got delayed, and stayed overnight in a hotel (back then airlines put you up) and he would have been in bad shape if stuck in his cage. I let him run around the hotel room when I went for dinner - he was waiting at the door for me when I returned.
Up here in the Northwest (specifically Seattle) it seems you don’t even have to sneek in animals anymore. I see them in grocery stores, bars, other retail establishments, and even buses. And since I don’t see them with those service animal coats, I heavily doubt they’re service animals.
Yeah, snuck a very small kitten into Target in my shirt. I was hand-nursing him and for his first two weeks he mostly slept in my shirt or my husband’s. I’m sure somone noticed my triple-boob look but since this is Iowa, everyone was too polite to say anything.
I have a small furry toy kitten which I take to the hospital with me. My husband got it for me when I was whining that I missed my cats and wanted him to bring one or two in to visit. This thing looks amazingly real, it’s like a 6 week old kitten that’s curled up for a kitten nap*. It has startled several health care workers, who start scolding me for having a kitten in my room, but then I show them that it’s a toy. If I need to go to the hospital for any reason, my husband knows to bring Hospital Kitty along with my other supplies.
*A kitten nap is like a cat nap, only smaller and even cuter.
Several times but it kept getting out.
Speaking of call centers, during a brief period of temping at a horrible call center that tracked medical studies, I saw one girl (on her last day) bring in a spectacular Eclectus parrot (the green sort, hence a male) in a plexiglas travel cage of some sort, apparently with management’s permission.
This and other hospital stories remind me that when my wife’s mother was in the hospice with terminal cancer, we were permitted to bring in out two pit bulls to see her (she’d been the first to care for Simone after she was found starving, so there was history between them). They tried to lick everyone who came near them, and were wildly popular with the patients and staff.
I only ever have a problem with people bringing in what doesn’t appear to be a service animal (not guiding, no “hey, I’m working-- don’t pet me” insignia/clothes) into a place that serves food. No problem if they sit out on the patio of a restaurant, but really, there are food safety laws in place regarding animals and foodservice establishments.
That said, I love my three dogs and would take them places if I were assured that they wouldn’t get too friendly with strangers; if anything, my dogs are not aloof at all.
I went to the Cathy Gardens with my little pug. The waitress noticed, and I said I hope you don’t mind. She got the manager and I said I hope you don’t mind. He said that’s alright we serve dogs.
Around here, some don’t even try to hide it. Last week I saw a woman at the supermarket with 3 small dogs in the cart and her purchases in the child’s seat.
Still makes me chuckle when I see people carefully wiping the cart handles with antiseptic wipes…
I haven’t sneaked animals into places, but I had a friend who had a pet rat. He said he used to take her to university classes in his pocket, and nobody noticed. He said that she was usually well-behaved but would occasionally pee in his pocket.
No, only my pet rats. They used to go everywhere with me, especially my first and best beloved one. He was even with me when I got arrested. 
They weigh less than a pound and I had mine trained to stay wherever I put them (in my bag, pocket, or on my shoulder hiding under my hair or a hood) so people rarely noticed them.