Kokito, an adorable French bulldog, died of suffocation after a flight attendant forced the 9-month-old puppy’s owner to place it in the overhead bin during a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York. Witnesses said that they could hear the pup barking for quite some time. Kokito’s necropsy, which was performed at Cornell University, revealed that the puppy succumbed to decreased oxygen levels that were likely a result of being placed in the overhead compartment, stress, and a narrow airway, which is common to the breed. Prosecutors in Texas and New York are looking at the incident as a possible criminal matter, which is why the necropsy was performed at Cornell.
United recently announced that it will again allow certain breeds to remain in the cabin during flights. This policy had been temporarily suspended while United required its crews to attend mandatory “compassion training.”
See Dog Killed on United Airlines Flight Died of Suffocation, TMZ, April 2, 2018.
