Comments

1
I read a few comments under the facebook post.

It appears that you pay a pet fee and put your animal in a carrier under the seat in front of you.

These people obviously didn't have a carrier. Sounds like the flight attendant was trying to solve the problem of getting them home when they wanted to get home.

Next time, that flight attendant is going to follow the rules. And somebody is going to be left behind to stay with the animal.
2
@1

Oh, fuck you. A dog does not get on board if they don't have the proper stuff. If it's not in a carrier or it's not documented as a service animal, it doesn't get in. Oh, and the Facebook post has picture of a carrier.
3
How horrific.

Yeah. No non-service dog boards a plane without a carrier. Period. If the dog did that is STILL the fault of the airline. That’s specifically the kind of shit they’re paid to notice and screen.
4
Wow, United is really doing its best to take first place in the most hated company award it seems.

This is entirely the airline's fault. If the animal wasn't in the proper carrier they should never have let it on. If it was in the proper carrier, they obviously fucked up in demanding it be put in overhead storage.

If they told me to put my animal in storage after the flight took off, I'd completely refuse and tell them they can land the plane, call the cops, and do their best to prosecute me. There's no fucking way they'd put my pet in storage unless they knocked me out first.
5
@1; the dog was in a carrier. From the story on time.com:

"Maggie Gremminger, who was on the flight and tweeted about witnessing the incident, told People the French bulldog’s owner, who is unnamed, initially placed the dog carrier under the seat in front of her. A flight attendant then requested the carrier be moved to the overhead bin, claiming it was blocking a portion of the aisle, according to Gremminger.

“After the flight attendant asked her to move it above, the woman adamantly refused, communicating her dog was in the bag,” she said. “There was some back and forth before finally the flight attendant convinced her to move the carrier to the bin above.”

Gremminger said she could hear the French bulldog bark from the bin for about 30 minutes during the journey and that it went quiet afterwards. Upon landing, the dog’s owner opened the bin and carrier and realized the French bulldog had died."
6
This is a weird story. Overhead bins are pressurized at the same level as the cabin, so what killed the dog?
9
@6 I wondered that as well. Perhaps lack of airflow or heat was too much for it? Poor thing.
10
@8 I wanted to keep it light but my second thought was dear god Frenchy's can barely breathe at it is. Stuffing one in a dark cabinet, in a bag... that can't be good.
11
@4 - In addition - why didn't any of the other passengers speak up?
12
FWIW, I have flown on several occasions with a small dog in a carrier that fit under the seat. He was a good sport and we never had any problems. If a flight attendant had suggested that I put him in the overhead bin, I would have asked to be accommodated on another flight. Not out of concern for the dog's welfare, but because that's just nuts.

I'm not victim blaming. I'm just saying that's what I would have done. When something seems crazy, it usually is. Don't bring a dog into it.
13
I'm wondering what actually killed the poor little thing. It was in a zipped-up carry-on that looked like a gym bag and placed in an overhead. Did it suffocate in the bag or because it was in the bin or both?
14
what actually killed it?
breeding.
15
Do flight attendants actually have the right to physically force you to do something? Why comply with such a ridiculous request?
16
It died of stark terror.

It was a puppy. Overhead bins are dark, loud, cold and do not get air circulation. You don’t even ship puppies or kittens in the baggage hold and that has much better air circulation. But pets even die in the hold all the time.

My brother works for an airline. He told me back in the day people used to try to smuggle pets in the overhead and good percentage of them died. It is well known that small young pets have died when placed there — that’s why YOU DON’T DO IT. It’s litteraly against every airlines policy.

Whoever the flight attendant was that did this knew the risk, defied policy, and did it anyway.

Wait and see. The law suit will be extraordinary.

17
@6: Newer planes have overhead bins that retract into the ceiling, and have a pretty tight seal. The air pressure would be the same as the cabin, but the odds of air actually circulating in the bin seems pretty small. Moreover, this was a French bulldog puppy, and the combo of being young and a brachycephalic breed means it would be at increased risk of hyperthermia and suffocation. Also, as @16 pointed out, it was probably scared shitless.
18
@4 I agree. It's still the airline's fault, but I don't understand why the owners cooperated.

We need a solution to how to fly pets safely. We live in a world that requires loads of people to fly around a lot- families scattered, work is international, people have to move a lot. We need a solution that allows people to fly with their pets. If you have a small pet, you can bring it in the cabin with you and usually it's alright. But if you have a large pet, there's the cargo situation which is also terrifying.

@6

Dogs with flat faces have trouble breathing, and it's not recommended to fly with them. If the dog was nervous and in a constricted area, it could've gone into distress. This is just speculation of course. Likewise, things move around in those cargo bins, and it looks like the carrier was cloth and the dog did not have enough room to turn around, so he could've been smothered.
19
poor pup

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