Flier flushes hamster on Spirit flight

FIRST it was Dexter the Peacock. Now it’s Pebbles the Hamster. And while Dexter was merely denied permission to board a United Airlines flight as his owner’s “emotional support” animal, Pebbles suffered a more grisly fate.

Her owner, Belen Aldecosea, 21, flushed Pebbles down the toilet after being told she could not take the tiny dwarf hamster on her

Spirit Airlines flight.

Aldecosea, of Miami Beach, claimed a representative for Spirit at Baltimore airport suggested the watery grave for Pebbles

– a charge the airline strongly denied.

“She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet,” Aldecosea told the

which broke the story this week of the ill-fated “emotional support” animal.

“I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the stall,” the Florida college student told the newspaper.

Spirit acknowledged that the airline had mistakenly told Aldecosea that Pebbles could accompany her on her November 21 flight but denied anyone from the airline suggested disposing of Pebbles in the toilet.

“After researching this incident, we can say confidently that at no point did any of our agents suggest this Guest (or any other for that matter) should flush or otherwise injure an animal,” Spirit spokesman Derek Dombrowski said in a statement.

“When the Guest appeared with the hamster at the airport, our agents offered and the Guest accepted an opportunity to take a later flight, so she had time to find other accommodations for the animal,” he said.

The news of the demise of Pebbles came a little over a week after Dexter the Peacock was turned away at New Jersey’s Newark Airport.