Southwest Airlines staff kicked a woman off of a flight when her newborn puppy whined in its carrier and she petted the pup from the outside to comfort it.
A video posted last week showed a new pet owner being escorted off of the flight from Colorado Springs to California after she got into arguments with flight attendants for touching her new puppy.
Sara Price, another passenger who posted a video on TikTok, said that Sitka, the eight-week-old puppy, was softly wining and its unnamed owner gave it a pet from outside its carrier.
According to People, the woman was told ‘that carrier has to be zipped all the way, and the dog has to be under the seat,’ which were rules that she followed.
And before they had even boarded the plane, a woman working for Southwest who was checking boarding passes said to the pet owner: ‘If you can’t keep that dog quiet, you may not be able to fly.’
A video posted last week showed a new pet owner being escorted off of the flight from Colorado Springs to California after she got into arguments with flight attendants for touching her new puppy
Sara Price, another passenger who posted a video on TikTok , said that Sitka, the eight-week-old puppy, was softly wining and its unnamed owner gave it a pet from outside its carrier
The carrier was zipped all the way, and she was just petting her pup from the mesh outside, according to Sara.
Sara said in her video caption: ‘The puppy was whining a little and the flight attendant boarding everyone walked up to her and said “if your [dog] doesn’t be quiet, you may not be able to fly”. She sticks her hand in the soft carrier and pets the puppy. It stopped whining.
‘We board the plane and she has the carrier in her lap still petting the puppy when the same flight attendant came up and said the carrier needed to be zipped completely and put under the seat.
‘Everyone around us was like “what’s going on here!?.”‘
Sara said that the dog gave a ‘soft whine’ – so the woman ‘leaned over and started petting it from the outside of the carrier but right at mesh’.
In the clip, which has gone viral online, the owner is heard calling the flight attendant ‘a mean person’
Southwest said in a statement: ‘Our employees are trained to ensure customers are following protocol, and in this situation and after the customer repeatedly refused to comply with our crew’s instructions, the decision was made to deplane the disruptive passenger’
She added: ‘All the attendants got in a group at the front of the plane and decided we needed to return to the gate and that she should be removed from the flight.’
In the clip, which has gone viral online, the owner is heard calling the flight attendant ‘a mean person.’
She also says that she will ‘never fly Southwest again’.
Meanwhile, passengers around the owner seemed to show her support, saying that ‘this is ridiculous.’
Sara’s husband, who was sitting with her, tells the owner: ‘It’s not like you even had the dog out, you were petting it.’
He then tells the steward: ‘You should be ashamed of yourself.’
According to the Independent, the couple filming the incident were also removed from the flight because of their ‘attitude.’
Sitka, the eight-week-old puppy, was softly whining on the trip
A handful of other passengers also got off the plane in protest, it was reported.
Sara and her husband had their tickets refunded, but the dog owner did not.
Southwest said in a statement: ‘We’re aware of the videos and our initial reports indicate that the customer would not comply with keeping her dog’s kennel closed, which is our policy.
‘Our employees are trained to ensure customers are following protocol, and in this situation and after the customer repeatedly refused to comply with our crew’s instructions, the decision was made to deplane the disruptive passenger.’
One person, after watching the video, said to Sara: ‘Thank you for standing up for her.’
Another said: ‘I would want to pet my dog and check on them and make sure they are OK.’