United Kills Dog

From the BBC:
"Dog dies in overhead locker on United Airlines plane"

United Airlines has accepted "full responsibility" for a dog's in-flight death after a flight attendant put the pet in the overhead locker. "This was a tragic accident that should never have happened," the airline said. The French bulldog died during a flight from Houston to New York on Monday.  Witnesses said the flight attendant had asked one of the passengers to put her airline-approved pet carrier in the locker. The attendant later said she did not know the dog was in the bag. "We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them," the US airline said in a statement. "We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again. Pets should never be placed in the overhead bin," the statement added. Passenger Maggie Gremminger, who said she was seating behind the woman with the dog, gave her account of what happened. "I witnessed a United flight attendant instruct a woman to put her dog carrier with live dog in an overhead bin," she told One Mile at a Time, a travel website. "The passenger adamantly pushed back, sharing verbally that her dog was in the bag.  "The flight attendant continued to ask the passenger to do it, and she eventually complied.  "By the end of the flight, the dog was dead. The woman was crying in the airplane aisle on the floor." The eyewitness went on Twitter, saying that "my heart is broken". Although, overhead lockers are not air-tight, lack of oxygen could have been the cause of the dog's death, US media report. United's policy for onboard animals states that "a pet travelling in cabin must be carried in an approved hard-sided or soft-sided kennel.  "The kennel must fit completely under the seat in front of the customer and remain there at all times."  

^  This is more than just a "tragic accident." An accident is something that you don't expect too happen, but a flight attendant on a plane knows that you should not put anything alive (a child, a dog, etc.) into the overhead compartment. By forcing the passenger to put her dog, in an airline-approved pet carrier, into the overhead compartment the flight attendant knew that he/she was endangering the life of the dog and so the dog's death is not an accident. This flight attendant should not only loose his/her job at United and not allowed to  ever be around animals ever again, but there should also be criminal charges made. I know many places sadly see dogs as property and not as live beings and so the criminal charges probably won't be filed. I hope the dog's owner brings a civil suit against the flight attendant and United. For decades flight attendants and pilots have had carte blanche to treat passengers and animals on-board as they see fit - and in any other circumstances they would be arrested if they did the things they do in the air on the ground. Anyone who stands up for themselves is labeled a terrorist and a criminal even when video evidence is shown and the flight attendants and pilots get off free and clear. That policy needs to stop. Without this policy the owner of the dog wouldn't have been forced to put her dog into the overhead compartment and the dog would have still been a live today. ^

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/animals/in_cabin.aspx