Gripped by controversy, United suspends large pet travel
United Airlines won't load any more large animals on flights until it figures out what's going wrong with its furry passengers.
Last week, a dog died after it was put in an overhead compartment. The next day, a German Shepherd from Kansas was swapped with a Great Dane and sent to Japan. Two days after that, another flight was diverted to drop off a pet that had been loaded on the wrong plane.
The mistakes prompted United to announce it would suspend PetSafe, its program for transporting large animals in climate-controlled compartments, "to conduct a thorough and systematic review" of how to improve the program. Any PetSafe reservations made before Tuesday will be honored, but the program will be shuttered from now on.
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United already said it would review its animal transport system before making the announcement Tuesday. It's decided to introduce color-coded tags to identify carry-on pets as one solution to the overheard compartment debacle.
Passengers can still bring small animals as carry-ons during thePetSafereview, which United expects to wrap up by May 1, per its website.
