An Oregon woman’s story blaming the death of her dog on United Airlines has gone viral, garnering international attention. But United Airlines said on Wednesday that it did nothing wrong.
The airline also said that two of the woman’s dogs were traveling together and the second dog was fine after the long trip, which included a 20-hour layover in Chicago.
Lizzy Acker | The Oregonian/OregonLive
“We were saddened to hear of Jacob’s passing,” Charlie Hobart, a spokesperson for United Airlines, told us over the phone, referring to Kathleen Considine’s golden retriever. “He showed no signs of distress nor did he behave in a way the would suggest that he was unwell” when he was with the airline.
“She shipped two dogs,” Hobart added. “The other doggy was completely fine.”
On Friday, Considine, a resident of Bend, posted a picture on Facebook of her and Jacob and wrote, “I am absolutely disgusted with the way UNITED AIRLINES is responding to my best friend, Jacob’s, death this past week.”
According to Considine’s account, her 80 pound, 7-year-old golden retriever was “happy” and “healthy” when he left Detroit for Portland last week. But when Considine picked him up at Portland International Airport, he was “disoriented and non-responsive.” She drove her dog three hours to her home in Bend, where she took him to the emergency vet. “He was pronounced dead after eight minutes of CPR,” she wrote.
In her post, Considine said her dog’s “stomach flipped due to the stress of his journey that was 20 hours longer than expected, and suffocated his organs.”
She also wrote that United Airlines may have given Jacob drugs to calm him down, a claim about which Hobart was unequivocal: “I know that someone had mentioned that we may have medicated the dog Jacob,” he said. “We did not.”
“We don’t accept animals that have been medicated,” he continued. “Often times that’s detrimental to the animal’s well being.”
Dr. Jason Nicholas Chief Medical Officer of Preventive Vet said over email that with just the given facts, it is impossible to determine what killed Jacob. When asked if stress could cause a dog’s stomach to “flip,” Nicholas said, “Not in and of itself.”
Hobart said the airline has offered to cover the cost of a necropsy for Jacob to determine cause of death but, to the best of his knowledge, Considine has so far declined.
The airline has, however, refunded the cost of Jacob’s travel. Hobart said that isn’t because he died after the trip, but because they “didn’t provide the sort of service we want to provide the customer.”
“Jacob did go through a 20-hour layover in Chicago,” Hobart said.
Hobart and Considine both agree that the layover stemmed from the size Jacob’s crate.
Jacob was originally “booked under a 500 series crate,” according to Hobart, but he was brought to the airport in a 700 series, which is larger and wouldn’t fit on the aircraft. So the dog was sent to Chicago in the 700 series, with the idea he could fly to the Portland in a different aircraft. Unfortunately, that was not possible.
“The team in Chicago realized the error,” Hobart said, and then, “we worked to get that 500 crate.”
According to Hobart, during his layover in Chicago, the golden retriever was barking.
“We fed Jacob,” Hobart said, and “gave him water.”
In her post, Considine wrote, “The word needs to get out that airline travel is UNSAFE for dogs. They are treated like baggage instead of loyal, loving family members.”
Screenshot via U.S. Department of Transportation
According to statistics from Department of Transportation, in 2016, United Airlines transported 109,149 animals and had nine deaths. While that is the highest number of any airline listed, it amounts to less than one tenth of one percent.
We’ve reached out to Considine and will update this post if we hear back.
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052
lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker
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