Delta Refused To Search For Dog That Escaped At Airport, Family Claims

A family has claimed Delta Air Lines refused to help find their dog after it escaped the tarmac of Tampa International Airport. Brady, a 4-year-old hound mix, chewed its transport crate and ran away.

The dog was being flown from Tampa to Bermuda to reunite with her family, who recently moved there. The incident took place when the dog was being loaded onto a Delta plane. The dog has not been found since it escaped last week.

“Brady is part of our family,” her owner, William Gideon, told People magazine. “We are sick about this. We’re worried, we’re devastated. We haven’t slept much, we can’t think of anything else. All we want is for Brady to be found and come back to our family."

Gideon said that Brady was handled by a company that specializes in transporting animals and they brought her to the airport. “There were no problems at first,” Gideon said. “But when she got to Tampa International, Brady chewed through the crate and ran off the tarmac.”

“I assumed that Delta and the Tampa International Airport had a protocol for when things like this happen,” he added. “But they really haven’t done anything. They basically say that this is my problem, not theirs.”

Gideon said that he was concerned about the well-being of his pet as there was blood on the crate. “I’m worried because Brady is hurt,” he went on saying. “It’s a nightmare for us all, to think about her out there, lost and alone and hurt.”

While blaming the airport, Gideon said that Gideon said that authorities told him there was no surveillance footage of the cargo area.

In a statement to CBS-affiliated television station WTSP, Delta Air Lines said: "Delta and animal control continue the search for a dog that was being loaded onto a flight to Tampa when it bit through the transfer kennel and ran into a heavily wooded area near the airport. We are in direct contact with the pet’s owner."

There have been several instances in the past when airlines have been criticized over its handling of pets.

In May, a Minnesota woman claims Delta Airlines held her 8-month-old German Shepherd captive for 33 hours, refusing to release him until she forked over $3,000.

In August, United Airlines was slammed after a Houston family blamed the airline for the death of their 5-year-old dog, who was put in the cargo hold of a plane that was delayed at the airport in Houston. United Airlines had the worst record in pet deaths among airlines in the U.S. in 2016.

“It’s tragic,” Daphna Nachminovitch, a PETA representative said of the United Airlines incident. “Our hearts go out to the family and obviously the dog.”

Delta Air Lines had five animal deaths and five injuries in 2016, the second-highest rate of animal death and injury among the top seven domestic airlines.