Apparently, the task of flying animals to the right destination—and even keeping them alive—has been too much for United Airlines.
On Tuesday, the airline announced that it has decided to briefly suspending its PetSafe program, which permits customers to pay for their pets to be shipped as cargo.
According to Inc, United said, “We are conducting a thorough and systematic review of our program for pets that travel in the cargo compartment to make improvements that will ensure the best possible experience for our customers and their pets.”
The airline has experienced a lot of bad luck in the past week. Just a few days back, a 10-week-old French bulldog puppy named Papacito died after a United Airlines flight attendant demanded that the dog be stowed in an overhead bin for a three-hour flight. Then, shortly after, a couple that paid for the PetSafe program found out that their German shepherd hadn’t arrived in Kansas City and was on its way to Tokyo. A Great Dane, whose owner was en route to Tokyo, landed in Kansas City, in the German shepherd’s place.
While the mix-up was resolved, another one happened just a couple days later: A United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey to St. Louis was redirected to Akron, Ohio after the airline discovered that they had the wrong dog, again.
PetSafe will resume on May 1, seemingly after United Airlines figures out how to stop accidentally sending dogs to foreign countries and sadly, killing them. Per Jezebel, 24 pets died on American flights last year, and 18 of those were in United’s PetSafe program.
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