To not understand how the hell this happened?! (Distressing content warning)

[CristinaYang]

So basically a family took their ten week old French bulldog puppy on a flight from Houston to NYC. United flight attendant made them put the puppy (in an approved carry case) into the overhead locker. The dog had died by the end of the flight.

Link: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43394952

From the article it seems that this was a grave error by the United employee (who claims she didn’t realise there was a dog in the bag, but yeah, I’m sceptical) and this is not United’s policy.

Clearly, CLEARLY the actions of that employee are deplorable and beneath contempt. Absolutely disgusting.

However, I’m also struggling to understand why the owners complied?! Surely you’d sooner leave the flight than comply with that instruction? Similarly the passengers sitting around the family who witnessed the incident. Why did no one intervene?!

Utterly grim story. That poor family. That poor little girl and that poor little baby.

I just read about this.
It's beyond awful and ridiculous.
Why why why?!

‘A tragic accident’
No, accidents are just that, accidents. This was down to the stupidity of a human.
Poor pup.

Humans plural, I’d say.

Just awful.

Are United the same airline that physically beat up and dragged a doctor off an overbooked flight last year?

I'm not familiar with US airlines but this seems really shocking. 2 bad incidents in a year?

I agree, something isn't adding up. They said the puppy stopped barking - who wouldn't go and investigate? Poor puppy

Yup. Same airline.

That’s awful. I’ve just watched the Cathrine Tate documentary on bulldogs, poor little animals.

Awful.

I was wondering why they didn't get up to check on it regularly, but the owner claims the whole flight was seatbelted due to turbulence.

Why would you shove your dog into the over head locker and not bother to check on it even once during the flight? The owner is wholly responsible for agreeing to put the dog up there and then not giving enough of a shit to see if it was ok.

United have a bad reputation for this kind of thing, this week they have also accidentally sent a sick dog to Japan rather than another US state, with no food or water, it survived.

Those dogs (brachycephalic- with the squished noses) are actually banned by a lot of airlines as they do die a lot mid air due to breathing difficulties and air pressure of something. So it might well have died anyway.

Tbh i don't see how it being in the overhead would have caused death although it sounds awful. It would have been darker, quieter ergo less stressful and not extremely hot or anything. A ten week old puppy wouldn't have been anymore stressed being parted from it's new owners than it would have been when parted from its mum the week earlier so that can't be the issue. I believe the stewardess can't have known. No one would put a puppy there on purpose.

It is an awful event, whatever exactly happened.

My brother adopted a puppy from Greece and it was flown back in an approved carrier below the seat in front of him (as per his airline's instruction).
I have no idea why the overhead compartment seemed the better place for it.
And how on earth could the flight attendant not have known there was a live dog in there??
Why did the owners not intervene?

As PP have said, something does not add up.

I do wonder why people (and I include my DB ) cannot just acquire dogs where they live, rather than necessitate pups having to fly...

United have accepted full responsibility and said that employee need not follow rules, family had paid 200 dollars to fly the puppy.

In July 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation released statistics that showed short-nosed breeds of dogs—such as pugs, Boston Terriers, boxers, some mastiffs, Pekingese, Lhasa Apsos, Shih tzus and bulldogs—are more likely to die on airplanes than dogs with normal-length muzzles. In fact, over the last 5 years, approximately one-half of the 122 dog deaths associated with airline flights involved these short-faced breeds. 25 of the 122 dogs that died over the 5-year period were English bulldogs, followed by 11 pugs, the only other breed in double digits

Not need did not, not sure where that came from.

American Airlines 😡 There are witness statements that say the owner clearly stated that it was a dog and she didn’t want to place it in the overhead locker. Gives a different spin on the story

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-us-canada-43394952

United also break guitars, a band wrote a song about when their guitars were smashed on a flight, and United couldn’t have cared less. But at least guitars can be replaced, this is an awful incident, that poor dog.

Iilcolibri , it's not two, I've read of at least one more and of the 24 animals that died in flight in the U.S, 18 were on United. There have been several incidents of animals bring injured too.

edition.cnn.com/2018/03/14/politics/dog-death-united-kennedy-letter/index.html

You can be arrested for refusing to obey air crew (as well as literally dragged off a plane).

The family are completely at fault here, what they hell were they thinking. The airline should have refused the dog but the familys should take responsiblity 100% for this.

But why not just leave the flight? I am honestly the least confrontational person you’ll meet, but even I would have refused to put the dog up there. Suffocation risk. Clattered by someone else’s bag. Whatever.

Owner’s an idiot, so’s the air steward. Sticking an animal in an overhead locker which was probably very warm, especially a brachy dog. Pure stupidity. Poor little pup.

Was this the airline that had someone flush a hamster down the loo?

(I find that story hilarious because I simply do not believe it.)

She should have got off the plane. She knew she had paid a fare so if they wouldn't let the dog fly, she should have taken that up with the airline. Not shove it into a dark overhead locker for hours. IMO an animal on a plane should be only if needs must, eg. Moving. Not casually as I'm sure it's a distressing experience at the best of times.