Where’s Paco? Josiah doesn’t know, his girlfriend doesn’t know, someone at Delta might know. After all, Delta was supposed to load Josiah’s new dog on the same plane that Josiah got on. Paco didn’t land with them. Frantic, Josiah called around desperately before being told that Paco was safe and sound, being taken care of by Delta employees, who would put him on the next flight out. Paco wasn’t on that one either. More harried calls and Delta told Josiah Paco had “escaped” and the best they could do is refund his $200.00 pet transportation fee, but only as a “credit” for future Delta travel. That doesn’t do Josiah any good, as he’s vowed to never fly Delta again. Here’s his story, and more adorable/sad puppy pictures:
UPDATE: Delta Offers $380 Plus 2 More $200 Vouchers For Lost Pooch
UPDATE: Delta spokesperson Susan Elliott says, “This is extremely rare for a situation like this to happen.” She says that they are going to be offering Josiah “additional compensation as well as our sincere apology.”
UPDATE: Josiah says the dog was vaccinated four days prior to the flight for rabies, kennel cough, and giardia, and given two other drugs, Canigen L Canigen MHA2PPi. He says the vet told him that the dog only needed to be vaccinated 3 days before flying.
It should be noted that the rabies vaccine is not considered effective until 30 days after administration.
However, even if this was a factor, Josiah says he was not asked to show any proof of the dog’s shots and Delta personnel told that this would be asked for in customs in Detroit.
Hi, my name is Josiah and I recently travelled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with Delta Airlines, and I am so appalled by them I can’t stand it. I booked my flights online, and that part went smoothly, but that’s the only good part of my traveling with them. I flew out of Detroit Metro in the early morning of April 24th 2010, and flew to Atlanta to catch a transfer which would take me to Puerto Vallarta. After arriving about an hour late and having to run to catch my plane, they said that they weren’t boarding any more passengers, but were taking an extra fifteen minutes to load all the baggage on the plane. When we arrived in Puerto Vallarta I was informed that, along with most people who were on the original flight from Detroit, my baggage never left the Atlanta airport, and I had to wait until the next day to receive all of my clothes and necessities for traveling.
Now, while I know that this isn’t too out of the ordinary, and that airlines have baggage delayed quite commonly, the next issue is one that is completely unacceptable and should never happen regardless of circumstances. When in Mexico, my girlfriend and I rescued a stray dog which our hosts said had been seen all over the town. We took him to the vet’s, got him all of his shots, an eye infection treated, two baths to clean him from hundreds of dog ticks that were covering his whole body, and gave him the name Paco. After this treatment at the vet clinic, we had to spend multiple additional hours picking more ticks from his body. We soon discovered that this dog was a very lucky find, and that it would be loyal and friendly to my girlfriend and I. It would walk by my side along the beach and along the sidewalks, went to the washroom outside, didn’t bark at cars or other dogs, and would sleep on the bed next to us curled up in a ball quite contently. My girlfriend and I were both very excited to take him back home to Canada with us, and we quite readily paid for an airline approved pet carrier and the costs associated with checking a pet on an airplane to travel as baggage, as he was too big to be taken as carry-on.
Everything went smoothly traveling with AeroMéxico from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City, where we had a five hour layover. We took the dog out so he could go to the bathroom and stretch his legs in-between our flights, and two hours before we departed from Mexico City to Detroit Metro we checked him with Delta for the flight. It took us a whole hour to check the dog because Delta said that the pet carrier we purchased was not big enough, despite the vet who treated the dog saying it was large enough, and it meeting all the criteria such as the dog being able to turn around and stand up. We spent the hour trying to convince the Delta employee that the carrier was large enough, and after seeing two separate supervisors, we had to sign a waiver saying that if my dog Paco received any injuries as a result of the size of the carrier, that Delta Airlines was not responsible.
After the fiasco of the size of the carrier being an issue, they assured us that Paco would be alright and transported safely to Detroit. However, when we arrived in Detroit and waited for twenty minutes at the pet claim, we began to suspect that something was wrong. We spent two hours in the Detroit Metro Airport trying to sort out what had happened to our dog, and we were told that it was never loaded on the plane in the first place, and that it was forgotten in Mexico City but would be cared for by Delta employees and walked, fed, watered, and would be sent on the next flight to Detroit, and then get delivered to my house in Ontario, Canada.
When I called Delta the following day to ask if Paco had been flown to Detroit yet, no one seemed to have any answers or have any idea about the location of my dog. I was shocked. I had been told explicitly that my dog was being cared for in Mexico City by Delta until he could be flown and delivered to me, and now they were telling me that they didn’t know where my dog was. I had my host in Mexico call the Mexico City Airport to get some answers, and she spent hours being transferred from person to person, each one having no idea what happened to my dog, she was finally told that my dog had somehow escaped from the carrier and disappeared. I do not believe for a second that Paco escaped from his carrier. It was a very secure hard plastic pet carrier with two locks and a metal wire door, and there is no way a small dog (he looked like a mix of a wiener dog and a jack russell) could scratch or break his way out of it.
If indeed he did somehow manage to escape from the carrier, why would I not have been informed of this in the first place? I was told that he was accounted for and being cared for in Mexico City, then that no one had any idea where he was, and then that he had escaped from the carrier.
There is no excuse for this kind of situation to take place, and I expect that when you pay to have a live animal flown with you to take him home, that Delta Airlines would take every precaution and action needed to make sure that is what happens. My dog is likely either still in his carrier in a corner, having not eaten or drank for over 48 hours, or he is lost in the Mexico City Airport terrified and starving.
The only thing Delta has tried to do to rectify this situation is offering their apology and refunding the cost for transporting a pet ($200.00USD) in a credit to be used with Delta Airlines. I think that this is completely absurd as there is no chance of me flying with Delta Airlines again.
That really sucks, Josiah. At the very least, Delta should give that $200 as a full refund. And as commenter tungstencoil points out, try asking them to return to you the dog carrier. It’s your property, and making them produce it could force some honesty out of the situation.
We’ve reached out to Delta for comment.
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Lots and lots of fail both in the comments and this guy’s case.
1) The US has different regulations about carrier/housing sizes compared to Mexico.
2) Dogs must be vaccinated against rabies at least 30 days before entering the United States. This requirement does not apply, however, to puppies less than three months of age or to dogs originating or located for at least six months in areas designated by the U.S. Public Health Service as being rabies-free.
3) I don’t suppose the guy who posted this complaint did the responsible and contacted the appropriate US government agency to inquire?
*after 5 minutes of the intergoogles and reading the relevant law*
USDA–APHIS–Veterinary Services
Los Angeles International Airport
11850 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Hawthorne, Calif. 90250
Telephone 310.725.1970
Is probably where the critter is.
4) What sort of idiot tries to ship an animal from one country to their home country with a layover in a 3rd country. The animal is looking at a minimum of 60-90 days in quarantine.
This is what I hate most about Airlines. You have some really important piece of luggage, or in this case a live animal, and you can’t load it on the plane yourself and make sure that it’s there.
And I should point out as an addendum, if they did put the dog on a later flight my comment about quarantine is probably what happened. God knows I’ve had more bizarre things happen with research animals.
Forgive me if this has been addressed in earlier comments, but: I’ve flown many dogs with Delta, and I’m always asked to assign a value to the dog before they’ll take it. I’ve always been honest and reasonable in my assessment of this amount, but it’s any amount I say it is (meaning I don’t provide any kind of “proof” of the animal’s monetary value). I’m wondering what value they assigned to poor Paco, and if that makes a difference in how dedicated a search is conducted when the dog goes missing. I’m recalling the huge national furor, which lasted for weeks, when Vivi the champion Whippet went missing from a Delta terminal after Westminster a few years ago.
apparently they’ve lost other pets and paid for the “value” of the pet. although this one was a show dog and they paid some sort of flat fee instead of the saleable value of the animal.
http://www.gadling.com/2008/02/10/delta-pays-2-800-for-a-lost-dog-worth-20-000/
as a pet owner, i’d be horrified and probably have to be hauled out of the airport hysterical by the police if this happened to any of my animals
I live on the other side of the country and when traveling home to see friends and family the wife and I drive. We have a dog and cat and that’s the only reason we roll down the road rather than fly. This story is the exact reason I refuse to fly with my pets. Airlines can’t keep luggage in the correct location, there’s no way I’m going to trust them with a member of my family (and yes our pets are very much apart of our family).
The last thing you want to do with an animal as territorial as a dog is travel with it. Think of it from the dog’s point-of-view. One moment you’re running free on the beaches of Puerto Vallarta and the next thing you know you’re shoved in a box and thrown on a airplane. No wonder the dog bolted.
This is just an example of people with good intentions doing a really insensitive thing.
Insensitive? They did a very, very good thing trying to save that pup from a short, hard life. Most people would have seen him, maybe thrown him a piece of bread, and kept walking. Maybe he would have starved to death on the streets, maybe he would have been killed, maybe he would have died from all the ticks that were sucking the life out of him, etc. The life of a street dog is bleak, and they wanted to give him something most street dogs will never get – vet care, love, and a home. Unfortunately, while flying is no doubt stressful for a dog (most people don’t seem to enjoy it very much recently, either) it was the best option available at the time to get him home to Canada. They weren’t globe-trotting with the family dog “shoved in a box”, they were rescuing him and trying to get him home.
But the dog doesn’t know all that.
I would have demanded return of the carrier. If it was double locked, the only way Paco would have “escaped” is if the carrier was severely damaged or forced open.
Airline baggage handlers have very little care for luggage or property. I can’t imagine what that little dog went through.
I know someone mentioned this earlier, but I did some digging about pet quarantine procedures. Now had Paco come on the original flight with his new owners, there should have been no problem, as Canada has few regulations on bringing pets into the country.
However, if he did make it on the flight into detroit, he might be stuck in customs quarantine.
and I quote from http://www.petfriendlytravel.com/intl_travel
The section on the United States
Proof of Rabies Vaccination:
Dogs must have a certificate showing they have been vaccinated against rabies at least 30 days prior to entry into the United States. These requirements apply equally to service animals such as Seeing Eye dogs.
…
Importation of Unvaccinated Dogs
Dogs not accompanied by proof of rabies vaccination, including those that are too young to be vaccinated (i.e. less than 3 months of age), may be admitted if the importer completes a confinement agreement and confines the animal until it is considered adequately vaccinated against rabies (the vaccine is not considered effective until 30 days after the date of vaccination).
So, hopefully it’s just something like this.
I am so sorry that this happened to you Josiah! Do not stop talking about this, emailing people and contacting the media. The more pressure that delta gets from the media the more they will do and maybe someone will find Paco and see your story and you can be reunited. Delta needs to be held responsible. A dog is not a piece of luggage. You can’t just replace it with $200!
I have a 3 year old Boglen Terrier, and if this happened to me, I’d be frantic. I can only imagine the tremendous loss they must feel. Offering a measly $200 for such a valuable relationship is just a slap in the face.
Delta Shmelta.
UPDATE: Delta Offers $380 Plus 2 More $200 Vouchers For Lost Pooch
Heart Breaking.
There is something staggeringly wrong when a corporation can somehow lose an entire, irreplaceably precious soul, lie about it, and offer no explanation and write a check to make it all go away.
F*ck You, Delta. F*ck You.
I bet they let the dog go just to spare themselves the hassle of actually sending the dog over.
I don’t know if someone has said this already, but “escaped” may be disarming corporate speak for “perished in-transit”.
This is ridiculous and so sad, I have friends in Delta Baggage and hope it’s not to late, I’d like to try and help. Please e-mail me your claim # gevirtzmedia@gmail.com
-harrison
Before you throw stones at Delta you need to hear the whole story. The story says the he escaped from his carrier. My wife working in cargo at Delta in the Atlanta area knows first hand that most carriers that the owners bring their pets in don’t work very well. Most break open very easily and the animals can get out very fast. I’m very sorry for his loss as I have two very loved golden’s in my house. I think Delta has done all they could had has more than likely looked into this and discovered that the carrier was more than likely the problem.
I really really hope the dog is just misplaced. Delta should find the dog and stop offering money. No amount of money replaces the dog, and Delta is just adding insult to injury with the useless vouchers.
this doesn’t help the OP, but I have had to fly with my dog twice (international moves). Once was with Air France and once was with British Airways. Both were amazing, both airlines went above and beyond to check on my dog and assure me that all was well. BA even brought the guy that had loaded my dog, to my seat, to assure me in person that she was stowed in the plane, and he was able to describe her perfectly to me when I asked. Both airlines were very patient and kind about my fears for her safety. If you ever need to fly with your animals, I can recommend these two airlines very highly.
Take them to court, and force them to pay you for your incredible loss. It won’t make it up of course, but money is obviously the only thing they value, so taking it away from them is the only punishment they will recognize.
I am appalled that Delta offered a voucher for a live, sentient being. Paco had a chance to live a good life with loving people. Now, where is Paco????? SHAME ON DELTA !!!!!!!
The problem with this world is that many humans regard animals as objects. Animals feel pain just like humans do.
There remains a group who are so persistently abused and marginalized that their suffering is ingrained in our everyday lives. If animals could talk, their chorus of cries would drown out every other noise in the world. We are all animals. We are all living, breathing beings who share the same Earth. We all feel pain when we are hurt, and we all have the right to experience kindness and compassion.
~Author Unknown~
I have a few issues here.
First of all, you’re getting all up in arms over a stray? It’s not like he was your dog for 10 years that you grew up with!
Second, are you (Josiah), absolutely certain that Delta lost your dog? Oh was it contracted ground employees? Or what if the dog got out and nobody noticed? In Mexico, stray dogs aren’t exactly unusual, especially in public places such as airports.
Third, for 2 $200 vouchers and $380 on top of that, Josiah had better take that. Considering that a dog was lost, possibly not by the airline, that he had found for literally nothing, that’s pretty impressive.
Fourth, I’m quite glad that the “entire” dog was lost. I don’t want pieces of a dog.
Fifth, Josiah needs to take some English classes. Specifically, he should look up how to avoid run-on sentences.
This is just appalling man, I have a dog too, and I will not be flying Delta any time soon in protest of this travesty. I am just mad and sickened by Delta’s lack of compassion.
Oh my goodness! My kitties are an extension of my family, therefore I can only imagine the pain this family must be going through; not to mention who knows how Paco is doing! I seriously hope this story finds a happy ending in the near future.
wait…
Have they lost half of a dog in the past?
I work for Delta as a low level ramp employee and I’m certainly not speaking on behalf of the airline when I write this. But has Josiah tried contacting the airport authority in MEX to see if he could track the movement of his dog through the airport the day it was lost by the airline? Airports are filled with cameras.
One of the downfalls of the “World’s Largest Global Airline” is it’s difficult to deal with a single person or department who knows entirely what’s going on with any given situation. I’m sure he’s been thrown around to god knows how many departments (on hold for 30 minutes each transfer). Contacting the airport authority could bypass the airline entirely to find out what really happened, especially if someone is trying to cover up any mistakes they made in the process.
Someone who works for the airlines obviously stole this adorable dog. They should get a private detective to interview everyone who had access to the dog. The dog may never have even made it on to the plane, it may have been stolen beforehand.~People For The Ethical Treatment Of Pit Bulls
First, the headline: “Entire” dog lost? I’d rather have NO dog than a PARTIAL dog… eegads.
I would demand Delta fly you and your girlfriend free of charge to Mexico City so YOU can look for Paco and get to the bottom of it. They can throw in 6 days 7 nights at a local resort as well. Equipped with your dog carrier, you can scour the airport area, post flyers and generally annoy the Delta employees, and try to engage them in the hunt. This way you can see first-hand what’s going on, squeeze a lot more money from the idiots, and be satisfied (to an extent) that all that could be done was done.
I think it would be fair to value Paco as you would any other member of your family, or at least as a valued piece of property… say $10.000… which could mean it’s an issue of internal theft. I would pursue it as such… and report it to the police…. publicly.
Demand that all the employees be interviewed by police, and that Delta produce each and every scratch of evidence pertaining to the whole sordid affair from the paperwork right down to your carrier. I would also include the news media and animal activist groups and ask their help with this since Delta very much doesn’t seem to be taking this very seriously.
Oh… and twitter Kevn Smith on this, he already has a hard-on for Delta anyway.
Josiah, don’t ever give up, do whatever you have to – if I were you I would be making such a nuisance of myself to Delta they would fly me back there to look for him, they would seat me in the CEO’s office or whoever is in charge of investigations into these sorts of things, and I would insist that this become very important. Poor Paco, don’t give up! PetRelocation.com is helping, make sure news media know and have them offer a reward for his return, get every pet agency you can involved. It looks like a lot of people are following this story, that is good, and anyone who believes in the power of prayer, pray that Paco is returned safely!! There is nothing like not knowing……..my thoughts, and prayers, are with you. Delta Airlines, step up to the plate!!!! Make sure this dog is found!!!!!
Josiah, another thing – make Delta explicity tell you what exact steps would have been taken in flying Paco to your home in Ontario. Contact each location along the way. Get news media involved at each loction along the way, force these people to be looking for poor Paco. If it were me, I’d force Delta to take me along each step of the way so I could look myself, so I could talk to people along the way, too!!!
Not that you would want to fly with them again but maybe use the voucher to go back and find Paco? And then, when/if you find him, they should let him fly with you in the cabin. AirCanada is letting small animals fly, considering what they did, its the least they could do to allow you that.
Well, they just lost another customer here, too. Why the hell do I want to fly on an airline that thinks it’s cool to loose someone’s pet and offer $200 in all, in return. Uh, excuse me? Do they not get that it isn’t about the money? Hell no.. I’m rooting for you Josiah & Paco. Cute pup. Terrible airline.
I suggest you call the media. They eat up stories like this and it will force Delta to figure out what happened to your dog. They deserve the PR nightmare, and you deserve answers. I truly hope that someone stole your dog and is caring for him as a pet; I don’t want to think about the alternative scenarios.
I wonder if this is a different consumer nightmare than anyone realizes. What kind of carrier did they buy? Did they get a P.O.S. from the equivalent of a Dollar Store or a Wal-Mart–i.e., one that would have easily come open during handling? Most animal owners are paranoid about their animals getting out of their cages during travel; I notice a comment that refers to one airline’s practice of requiring extra plastic ties on carriers–no doubt a requirement that resulted from animals escaping.
A lot of stuff you see in the stores these days you would be better off mailing your money directly to China instead of having to burden the garbage men with yet another P.O.S. that doesn’t work; I am sure that some pet carriers belong in that category.
There is yet another possibility: I notice that they were hassled about the carrier seeming to be too small despite what their vet supposedly said. It would not be inconceivable that one of the Delta employees or someone else with access to the tarmac thought that the animal was being cruelly confined in too small a space, and decided to “liberate” it, the same way that some animal anti-cruelty groups sometimes do to lab animals.
I would not be too harsh on Delta without gathering all of the facts first.
$200 credit!? Are you effing kidding me!?
How bout a few million in punitive damages instead? This guy should sue Delta.
Folks he gave up. Other than a small group of people in Mexico looking for Paco (that does not have Josiahs blessing) no other effort has been made. Josiah never took anyone up on suggestions, help offered or even a free flight and stay in Mexico.
As it turns out, this was a play to shame delta into giving him more compensation. Josiah has put out the same effort as Delta into actually looking for Paco.
Yeah – Delta likes to give out travel vouchers vs. cash because first off – you can only spend it on Delta stuff and secondly – most people forget to use the vouchers (which are only good for one year from date of issuance) Delta makes out like a bandit. Also – contrary to what they say in their PetFirst literature, they do NOT have climate controlled environments in CVG, SLC, JFK and ATL. Delta’s idea of climate controlled is out on a luggage cart on the tarmac with your animal in the cage you provided. If there is a delay or someone forgot to pick up your animal on transfer flights – good luck! They talk a good game for PR but they really don’t follow through. They could do much better and they know it. They just choose not to, Also, it is a great idea to use the cable ties to secure the door of the container. Delta has a responsibility to make sure the container you have meets their requirements so they should not have left you ship a substandard animal container. You can purchased their approved models from PetFirst.
You should have a right to see what happened on the security cameras. Someone knows what happened to Paco. You should keep bothering the airport and Delta until someone helps you.
At least then you will know. You have a right to know.
I see that Delta giving Sky Miles to people who buy their pet prescriptions at PetCareRX.com. I just found this funny considering their past experience with this dog.
How is it that this story got no national tv/press publicity? Could it be that the dog was eventually found?
I can’t imagine a bigger potential PR nightmare. If Delta really lost the dog and didn’t suffer a national scandal … major bullet miraculously dodged.