United’s pet snafus put airline under siege

United Airlines, under siege over the death of a puppy on one of its flights, says the attendant who ordered a passenger to put her pet carrier in the overhead bin Monday night didn’t know there was a French bulldog inside.

But Sophia Ceballos, 11, told NBC News that her mother told the flight attendant “‘It’s a dog, it’s a dog, and (the flight attendant) said we have to put it up there.”

United on Wednesday acknowledged the customer said 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,” the airline said. The employee was not identified.

Last year, 18 animals, mostly dogs, died while being transported on United — three-fourths of all animal deaths on U.S. carriers, the Department of Transportation said. Those figures involve animals that die in cargo holds.

An animal dying on a plane is rare. Even on United, which calls its pet-shipping program PetSafe, there was only one death for every 4,500 animals transported last year.

United spokesman Charles Hobart said deaths usually are attributable to pre-existing medical conditions or because the animal wasn’t properly acclimated to its crate.

United has suffered a string of incidents that generated bad publicity in the past year. The latest came to light Tuesday, when a Kansasbound German shepherd was mistakenly shipped to Japan by United.

United acknowledged the German shepherd bound for Kansas City from Oregon was accidentally flown to Japan. The owners of the German shepherd were presented at the airport with a greyhound that was supposed to go to Japan.

“We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible,” United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said.