United halts PetSafe program
March has been tough on dogs flying with United Airlines.
Last week, a French bulldog died after being placed in an overhead bin on a flight from Houston to New York. A day later, a German shepherd headed from Oregon to Kansas wound up in Japan after being mixed up with a Great Dane during a connection in Denver. (The dog was flown back in a private jet.) Another dog, bound for Akron, was mistakenly loaded onto a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to St. Louis. The plane made an extra stop in Akron, where it was reunited with its family.
On Tuesday, the spate of missteps prompted United to suspend PetSafe, its program for transporting animals in the cargo holds of planes, while the airline moves to prevent more problems.
“We know we need to improve, but we also know the best way to do that is to stop and take a look at this,” said Charlie Hobart, a company spokesman.
United said it would cease taking new PetSafe bookings until May 1. The change will not affect animals permitted to travel in plane cabins or alreadybooked reservations.
The airline has adopted some new policies meant to ensure that animals are tracked and accounted for at all stages of travel. The measures include distributing pet-travel documents and itineraries directly to airport managers, and a new Of the more than 500,000 animals on flights with U.S. carriers last year, 24 died in transit; of those, 18 were on United. process for loading animals onto planes that involves multiple checks and confirmations before departure.
Representatives for American Airline and Delta Air Lines said the carriers were not planning any changes to their policies for transporting animals in cargo.
Delta, however, had a problem over the weekend. An 8-weekold puppy headed to his new home in Idaho was mistakenly flown thousands of miles around the country, landing in at least four other states before reaching his destination safely, his owner said.
The owner, Josh Schlaich, told NBC affiliate KTVB that he was expecting Delta to deliver his dog Saturday, but instead he received a call from an airline employee in Detroit, saying the pup was being kept at a boarding facility overnight. From there, the pup was flown in a crate to Minneapolis, but the airline said he was then “misrouted” to Las Vegas and sent to Salt Lake City on his way to his home in Boise, according to CNN.
Schlaich told KTVB that when got to Boise Airport on Sunday to pick up his dog, the airline gave him the dog’s litter mate. Both of them had been sent from a Virginia breeder.
Ultimately, the puppy arrived safely, Schlaich said.
Delta Air Lines apologized Tuesday “for the delayed shipment of a dog.”