New York: An eight-month-old German Shepherd was held hostage by Delta Airlines for more than 33 hours over paperwork that airline officials misplaced, the pet’s owner has claimed.
Mary Nguyen, a 25-year-old student living in Minneapolis, decided to relocate her German Shepherd named Bunny to Guatemala so he could live with her husband.
The “hostage” situation began last week, when Nguyen hired Pet Air Carrier, a private company unaffiliated with Delta, paying it $3,000 to ship Bunny.
As part of the arrangement, Nguyen drove from Minneapolis to Wisconsin to have the required paperwork endorsed before sending the puppy on his way on Wednesday.
But when Nguyen’s husband tried to get Bunny out of cargo at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Delta balked, saying the necessary paperwork to take the animal to a new country had been left back in the US, CBS reported.
Adding insult to injury, Nguyen claimed Delta agents demanded an extra $3,000 to free the pup. “After 33 hours, they finally released Bunny,” she said.
Delta has had problems transporting pets in the past, with five animal deaths and five injuries in 2016, the second-highest rate of animal death and injury among the top seven domestic airlines.
