A dog named Winston was left traumatized after Canadian airline Air Transat lost the pet for 21 hours in Toronto Pearson International Airport.
CP24 reports that the dog's rescuer Jena Butts said customs eventually found him in a "corner with lost bags" and he was "covered in urine." The woman said she "fell in love" with Winston and rescued the pup while she was in the Dominican Republic (DR) and brought him back to Canada to rehome him.
Butts, who had spent three months in DR's Puerto Plata, arrived at the Toronto Pearson International Airport around 1:30 am Saturday and waited for Winston and her own dog to come out of luggage. At 2 am her dog arrived but no Winston.
According to Yahoo! News, she asked the baggage people about the dog but they said there was nothing else to be found. Not knowing if Winston even made it to Canada from DR, Butts waited but was told around 3 am by customs' skeleton crew to go home and follow up later.
CTV News Toronto reports that the Greater Toronto Airport Authority cited "staffing shortages, flight delays and cancellations and temporary mechanical disruptions as some of the reasons for the 'challenges with baggage.'"
Butts spent the rest of her morning trying to contact the airline, Air Transat, to find out if Winston had even made it to Toronto or if he was still in Peurto Plata. She said, "This is a living creature," and that she "was very angry" and "didn’t understand how nobody could be at the airport to help me find my dog."
21 hours later a customs agent spotted the dog in a corner along with lost luggage. While the pup hadn't had a proper bathroom break an agent had given him water.
Butts never heard from Air Transat directly but instead from GTA dnata, a service provider for Air Transit at Pearson airport.
GTA dnata's CEO Antonio Alvarez wrote her, "While there were reasons for the service failure that left you wondering about the whereabouts of your treasured pet, we can only assure you that we will take the necessary steps to ensure no other pet owner has to experience a similar situation. You entrusted them with your precious cargo and regrettably, we let you down. As a dog owner, I can fully appreciate the anguish that our failure caused you and we would like to offer you a small token of compensation in the form of a gift card that you can use at your discretion."
The airline did tell CTV News that they were doing a full investigation and would offer Butts compensation.
She responded she isn't interested in compensation but instead wants the airline to do better when it comes to handling live animals.
"It’s hard to put my words together," Butts said, "There needs to be a procedure, better policies."
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