Dog Died After Being Left On Hot Tarmac, Owners Claim

An internal investigation is underway after a French bulldog was found dead in his carrier at Sydney Airport on Thursday.

Sydney-based couple Kristina and Neil Maccabee said they had taken their dog, Bruno, along with them to visit relatives in Townsville, Australia, and the pet died on the flight back home.

Virgin Australia Airlines said it followed the rules while transporting the pet and also confirmed that an internal investigation was ongoing, Yahoo 7 reported.

The couple said when they went to collect their dog at the airport, the airline staff told them it had died from apparent heat exhaustion. They believe their beloved six-year-old pet was left on the hot tarmac for 40 minutes before they boarded the plane.

Veterinarian Lizzie Gan told Yahoo 7 that travelling with any pet on flight can be tricky, however, it is even more risky for breeds with flat noses like the French bulldog.

“They have difficulty dispelling heat or expelling heat from their narrowed airways and therefore any brachycephalic is at risk of overheating,” the doctor said.

The airline said people who fly with these breeds should sign a document acknowledging the risk they were taking. It, however, insisted that Bruno didn't die of heatstroke and that the pooch was placed in the appropriate baggage area, always in shade and had plenty of water. Virgin Australia further stated it was sorry to hear about the loss of the pet and that it took the matter seriously.

In a similar incident in 2018, a pet dog died after United Airlines forced it into an overhead bin. The incident took place on a flight from Texas to New York when a flight attendant told a passenger to keep her bag in one of the overhead bins after she saw the passenger tucking it under her seat. Despite the passenger informing the attendant that the bag contained her pet dog, she was forced to place it in the overhead bin.

“At the end of the flight, the woman found her dog, deceased. She sat in the airplane aisle on the floor crying, and all of surrounding passengers were utterly stunned,” Maggie Gremminger, a fellow passenger wrote on Twitter at the time.

Maggie Schmerin, a spokeswoman for the airline, said, “This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin. We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them.”