United Airlines in dog box over death

– United Airlines faced fresh backlash on Wednesday over a puppy that died in-flight after a cabin attendant ordered it stowed in an overhead bin.

And the US department of transportation said it was examining the events that led to the French bulldog’s death.

US Senator John Kennedy, who earlier on Wednesday sent a letter to United Airlines president Scott Kirby demanding information on the high number of animals that have died in the carrier’s care, wrote on Twitter that he planned to file a Bill yesterday that would prohibit airlines from putting animals in overhead bins.

Kennedy, in his letter, said United’s “pattern of animal deaths and injuries is simply inexcusable”. He cited figures from the transportation department that of the 24 animals that died on US carriers last year, 18 were on United flights.

The actions came after a United flight attendant insisted that the bulldog’s owner, Catalina Robledo, put her pet, which was in a dog carrier case, in an overhead storage bin during a 3½-hour flight from Houston to New York on Monday.

Robledo’s 11-year-old daughter, Sophia Ceballos, in an interview with CBS, recounted her reaction when the attendant ordered that the dog carrier case be placed in the overhead bin.

“I was like ‘It’s a dog, it’s a dog. He can’t breathe there,’” Ceballos told CBS. “[The flight attendant] was like ‘it doesn’t matter’.”

The family told CBS they heard the puppy, named Kokito, barking for two hours during the flight before he suddenly went silent.