A family from Oregon was heartbroken when their dog died of heatstroke on an Alaska Airlines flight that was waiting to leave Oahu, Hawaii.
Angie Engelgau told KGW8 that Hawaii is not dog-friendly as she thought about the tragedy.
There was an accident on Sunday while she was waiting to fly home from Honolulu to Oregon with her husband Gary, their 15-year-old Beagle-Chihuahua Fawn, their four-year-old French Bulldog Frank, and Frank’s sister Charlie. It was said that they had just moved to Oregon from Hawaii and were excited to start a new life.
“Everything, our pets, and everyone,” said Gary, who was born and raised in Portland.
But by the time the Oregonians got to Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport at 10 a.m., it was over 80 degrees Fahrenheit. They thought this was hard on their dogs, who were in cages.
They asked workers if they could get their pets out of the kennels, but they were told no. Angie said this was because animals aren’t allowed out of their carriers at the airport, except in the pet relief area, which has both indoor and outdoor spaces.
Still, it’s not clear if pets are allowed out of their cages. However, an airport representative said that they “would not restrict access for this particular request.”
The Engelgaus said that even though this was supposed to be the norm, staff members refused to let them take the dogs outside.
Agie said, “We’re just waiting at the gate for our flight.” “Since Frank was getting short of breath, we kept asking the desk staff if we could take them outside.”
The couple had no choice but to sneak the dogs out of their kennels for a 40-minute break. During that time, they gave the dogs water and kept them in the shade.
They asked Alaska Airlines flight staff if they could take the dehydrated dogs out of their kennels when they finally got on the plane, but the workers said no. The AA rules say that pets must stay in their cages in the boarding areas, during taxi, takeoff, and landing.
The scared dog owners put ice on Frank to cool him down, but it was too late; he was already dead.
Even when Gary shook the puppy, it didn’t move. When Gary took the puppy out of the box, his “eyes were open.” “He wasn’t moving or breathing, and his tongue was sticking out a bit.” So that was it,” the sad dog dad said.
Angie, who was crying, said that the pet died because they wouldn’t let him out of his pen even though it was clear that he was in “distress.”
The sad woman is asking the airlines to “make a change” because of Frank’s death. She says, “I want to find whoever I need to find, to make a law that gives dogs a chance to live when they travel.”
The airline said in a statement that they cared about the safety of pet passengers and were “saddened by the reported loss of this guest’s pet.”
On the other hand, they said they strictly followed the airline’s pet rules and took extra care of their pets during the trip.
The Engelgaus said that their late dog wasn’t “the smartest dog,” but he was still a “good dog.”
For the second time, a dog has died while moving from the Hawaiian Islands to the US mainland.
After their 1-year-old English pit bull died on a trip from Las Vegas back to Honolulu in 2022, a couple from Hawaii said they were going to sue Hawaiian Airlines.
It is very rare for pets to die on airplanes, but it does happen.
The Department of Transportation was told about 112 pet deaths by airlines between January 2015 and December 2020. More than 40% of these deaths happened on United Airlines.
