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This story really makes me sad as a pet owner, and as someone who travels with a pet. Â Luckily, my dog is only 10 lbs, so can easily be brought onboard.
A woman booked her dog onto an itinerary from Michigan to Portland. Â He had a plane change in Chicago, where his layover was supposed to be, but according to WXYZ Detroit, was moved to a later flight because they could not fit his crate on the original airplane.
His one-hour layover turned into a twenty-hour layover.
There was something wrong with her dog after he landed.
Considine and her boyfriend rushed Jacob to an emergency veterinarian where he immediately needed CPR.
Eight minutes later, Jacob was dead.
Considine was told that it appeared Jacob died from Gastric Dilatation and Volvulus Syndrome, which is more commonly called bloat, brought on by stress.
Stress can cause bloat (though it isn’t the sole cause).  Because bloat can have multiple causes, it isn’t clear whether or not the flights/delay themselves caused the bloat.  But if her dog had arrived when he was originally supposed to, she would have had more time to intervene.
Here is her heartbreaking Facebook post:
United Airlines, big surprise.
Absolutely unacceptable. If United cannot treat animals differently than luggage, then they should not accept them.
This is inhumane, and an outrage. Agree with Joseph N: Don’t offer the service if you cannot fulfill it’s expectations.
A captain is responsible for his ship and the people on board. Who at United is responsible for leaving a dog uncared for? At minimum, a guarantee should be made that an owner and her dog should never be separated more than X minutes besides the flight itself.
I’m not a pet owner, and probably never will be.
Very sad, but air travel just seems so incompatible with animals. We passengers are barely treated humanely in coach why expect animals to be treated well?