Dog dies on united airlines

[yorkiemini]

I can’t veleive the dog’s owner would do that!

[Britster]

SOOOO sad and scary.

Sounds like the owner just felt she had to listen to the flight attendent. She also had 2 little ones with her. I would've never allowed it - I'd rather lose my money and just walk off the plane if it was going to be a huge issue. What a joke. She PAID for the dog to be on the plane and under her seat.

Ugh, awful.

Originally Posted by pstinard

This is why I will never take a pet on an airline. They didn't use to allow it at all when I was a kid. I don't even take Bella on road trips--I have her boarded at the vet.

Many people fly with animals perfectly fine and easily. And there is nothing more great than traveling with your beloved pet! Jackson LOVES getting to experience new places. Basically, as long as he's with me, he's loving life! haha. Here is a sample of some trips we took last year:

https://britandjackson.wixsite.com/a...Year-in-Review

It would be a shame for people to miss out or be scared to do things with their dogs! Let's hope more education will be put in place for employees of airlines.

[yorkiemini]

Very sad!we travel a great deal and have never had any problems. We are frequent fliers, but I would never let someone else dictate what is acceptable for my dog. But maybe they were not experienced fliers and relied on that devastating advise.

[Jkpal]

I think you give her too much of a break...inexperienced or not, why would anyone ever think it "ok" to put their pet in the overhead bin? Suitcases, pillows, blankets, etc, are just randomly stuffed and crammed in overhead by anybody and everybody. And we've all seen the videos of chaos caused by turbulence, which is not uncommon. The overhead bin doors are the first things to fly open, scattering stuff everywhere. Nope, doesn't take a seasoned traveler to recognize one doesn't "store" their dog anywhere, including an overhead bin. But again, that's just my opinion.

[yavenay]

Originally Posted by matese

Dog dies on United flight after flight attendant allegedly forced passenger to put carrier in overhead bin
Tragedy struck on a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York City, when a dog in a TSA-compliant pet carrier died after a flight attendant allegedly forced its owner to store the animal and its carrier in an overhead bin for the duration of the four-hour Monday flight.

The story was first reported by travel blogger the Points Guy. United has since claimed full responsibility for the “tragic accident.”

According to passenger Maggie Gremminger, she and others heard the black French bulldog barking initially during the flight, and were horrified to learn the animal had died later in the trip.

That dog was in the overhead compartment for 4 hours, I am sure it died from lack of oxygen. Google the story.

Was there some rule in place that said she could not check the overhead compartment? In 4 hours, she never thought to check on her dog? Yes United was wrong but so was she for not checking on her dog.

[lilgidget]

This has made national news. Saw a report last night on Lester Holt's news cast. Also learned that there have ben 28 reported pet deaths in the last year and at least half were on United flights.

[TASEY]

I am not sure I'm buying that the flight attendant didn't know it was a dog - wasn't it barking for the first few hours?

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by Britster

Many people fly with animals perfectly fine and easily. And there is nothing more great than traveling with your beloved pet! Jackson LOVES getting to experience new places. Basically, as long as he's with me, he's loving life! haha. Here is a sample of some trips we took last year:

https://britandjackson.wixsite.com/a...Year-in-Review

It would be a shame for people to miss out or be scared to do things with their dogs! Let's hope more education will be put in place for employees of airlines.

Bella absolutely HATES traveling in the car for any length of time. I'll take her across town, but I'll never take her out of town (her vet, the groomer, and parks are all in town), and certainly not cross country. It would be too stressful for her. She's not a road dog .

[canana]

Originally Posted by TASEY

I am not sure I'm buying that the flight attendant didn't know it was a dog - wasn't it barking for the first few hours?

Same here! I don't buy it at all...

Originally Posted by Jkpal

Re: Dog dying on United

We have spoken to the family, our crew and a number of passengers who were seated nearby. We have learned that the customer did tell the flight attendant that there was a dog in the carrier. However, our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin,” United spokesperson Maggie Schmerin told PEOPLE in a statement. “As we stated, we take full responsibility and are deeply sorry for this tragic accident. We remain in contact with the family to express our condolences and offer support.”
In response to the tragedy, Schmerin said the airline plans to change its pet travel policy to ensure something like what happened to Robledo and Kokito never occurs again.
“To prevent this from happening again, by April we will issue bright colored bag tags to customers traveling with in-cabin pets. This visual tag will further help our flight attendants identify pets in-cabin,” Schmerin added in her statement to PEOPLE.

Maybe it was the best excuse they could come up with? They ought to change their policy to no pets allowed. That or have a policy where they hire flight attendants who can understand passengers or at the very least can hear passengers and/or dog barking sounds.

I also cannot believe the dog owner did not check on her dog or thought it was okay for the dog to be there during the entire time. I just don't understand...

After all these statistics, dog owners should never fly with United with their dogs. And should fly with extra caution if they do with other airlines. It's just awful!

[amyazer]

That flight attendant is stupid. If the flight attendant asked me to do that I would have said how about you sit in the overhead and see how it feels. I also would have never left the flight if anything the flight attendant should leave for coming up with such a ridiculous idea! The whole situation is just mind boggling.

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by canana

I also cannot believe the dog owner did not check on her dog or thought it was okay for the dog to be there during the entire time. I just don't understand...

I was wondering the same thing. They allow people to open those overhead bins during the flight. If I had a dog in the bin, I would be checking on it every 15 minutes. Plus, I can't believe that the air supply in the bin is so little that it wouldn't last for the whole flight, or that those bins are air-tight. I'm wondering if the dog died of stress rather than suffocation. Still a sad story either way.

[maxdog]

Originally Posted by Jkpal

I think you give her too much of a break...inexperienced or not, why would anyone ever think it "ok" to put their pet in the overhead bin? Suitcases, pillows, blankets, etc, are just randomly stuffed and crammed in overhead by anybody and everybody. And we've all seen the videos of chaos caused by turbulence, which is not uncommon. The overhead bin doors are the first things to fly open, scattering stuff everywhere. Nope, doesn't take a seasoned traveler to recognize one doesn't "store" their dog anywhere, including an overhead bin. But again, that's just my opinion.

While my heart bleeds for the owner I have to agree with you. What was she thinking? Not a snowball's chance in hell my dog ever goes in the overhead. And the dog was barking then stopped? Does it take a genius to realize something is terribly wrong at that point? The entire US Army would not have stopped me from getting my dog out of there. The airline is definitely at fault but she has to shoulder a large portion of the blame.

[canana]

Originally Posted by pstinard

I was wondering the same thing. They allow people to open those overhead bins during the flight. If I had a dog in the bin, I would be checking on it every 15 minutes. Plus, I can't believe that the air supply in the bin is so little that it wouldn't last for the whole flight, or that those bins are air-tight. I'm wondering if the dog died of stress rather than suffocation. Still a sad story either way.

I don't know about others, but I find it stuffy on flights, even with the gross vent blowing air out. I can't begin to imagine how the overhead bins would lack in air.

That's what I thought too. Frenchie's are always snorting (they seem to have difficulties breathing normally when on the ground).. poor pup probably freaked out, couldn't breathe, and then died of suffocation. It's just so saddening.

[Britster]

Originally Posted by pstinard

Bella absolutely HATES traveling in the car for any length of time. I'll take her across town, but I'll never take her out of town (her vet, the groomer, and parks are all in town), and certainly not cross country. It would be too stressful for her. She's not a road dog .

Awww, yeah every dog is different. See and Jackson would be an anxiety ridden mess being boarded at a vet! I could never do it to him.

I just took your first post like you were saying you were kind of... against traveling with pets in general and many many people travel with pets so I would hope this kind of news story doesn't cause airlines to just... stop allowing the option altogether. Hopefully this brings awareness to issues that need to be dealt with and a consistency among rules because things are just starting to get more pet friendly

[Bonbons Jean]

Airlines restrict the transportation of short nosed dogs, like bulldogs due to known breathing difficulties.