On December 28th, Twitter user @theregoesbabs tweeted a picture of a dog carrier on a rainy tarmac. The response? Epic.
Evil United Airlines leaves dog on rainy cold runway for more than a half hour despite alerts to staff :-((((( boo pic.twitter.com/xcwVOxIpV9
— barbara (@theregoesbabs) December 28, 2014
The tweet quickly went viral and unleashed a storm of tweets onto the United Airlines Twitter account.
Then the airline responded to the tweet:
Twitter users expressed their outrage and unhappiness at the response, with Keith Olbermann and Australian pop singer Sia also joining in.
In a further statement to The Daily Mail, a spokesperson for United explained:
“As is our standard practice, our employees placed the pet kennel completely under the wing to protect the pet from the falling rain and onto the aircraft after completing the baggage loading.”
The airline also told ABC-13 they, “…checked several cameras and confirmed that our ramp employees in Houston never left the pet unattended after our PetSafe employees dropped the kennel off.” They added the dog inside the kennel was dry, and there were cones surrounding the carrier to let employees know there was a dog inside.
Additionally, they responded to other tweets about the incident:
The pup parent of the dog pictured in the photo has yet to make a statement regarding the situation.
All in all, it’s not easy flying with pets during the holidays. As you’re traveling back and forth with your pup, here are ways to make it easier for everyone involved!
