A Toronto woman says a dog she rescued from the Dominican Republic was left traumatized after being left on a corner at Toronto Pearson International Airport with luggage for about 21 hours.
Jena Butts had just spent three months in Puerto Plata, where she found and fell in love with a stray dog. She decided to bring the animal back to Canada and find her a good home.
Butts, along with the rescued man named Winston and his own dog, arrived at Toronto Pearson International Airport around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. At about 2 am, his dog came out, but Winston did not.
“(I) talked to some of the baggage people when they were there and told them, ‘I’m still waiting for a dog.’ They told me there is nothing else there,” she said.
Around 3 am, a customs agent advised him to go home and call the airline later, as no other staff were around.
“I was very angry and didn’t understand how no one could be at the airport to help me find my dog,” she said. “This is a living creature.”
Butts spent the rest of the morning trying to contact the airline, Air Transat, to find out if Winston had arrived in Toronto or was still in Puerto Plata.
About 21 hours later, customs at Pearson Airport detected the box.
“He was found on a corner with missing bags,” Butts said.
A customs agent had taken Winston out of his cage to give him water, Butts said, but the animal was still covered in urine when he got to him.
“He is very traumatized,” he said. “I definitely won’t be traveling with dogs for a while now.”
Jena Butts holds Winston after he spent nearly 21 hours trapped in his cage after a flight to Toronto Pearson International Airport. (Carol Carlos)
Butts said he received an email from GTA dnata, an Air Transit service provider at Pearson Airport, apologizing for the incident and offering him a gift card as compensation.
“While there were reasons for the service failure that left you wondering about the whereabouts of your precious pet, we can only assure you that we will take the necessary steps to ensure that no other pet owner has to experience a similar situation,” said Executive Director . wrote Antonio Alvarez. “You entrusted them with your precious cargo, and sadly, we let you down.”
“As a dog owner myself, I can fully appreciate the distress our failure caused you and would like to offer you a small token of compensation in the form of a gift card that you can use at your discretion.”
Butts said he has not yet heard directly from Air Transat. When he was contacted for comment, the airline told CTV News Toronto that it has requested a full investigation into the incident.
“We deeply regret that our client had to go through this stressful situation. We will contact them directly to provide full details and offer compensation. “
Butts said she’s not all that interested in compensation. What he wants the airline to do is create a better policy when it comes to handling live animals on their planes.
“I’m still very shaken,” she said. “It’s hard to put my words together. There has to be a procedure, better policies.”
“I feel like (Air Transat) could have handled the situation in a much better way and, you know, with a little more empathy because no one seemed to care.”
She said that Winston was supposed to be taken to his new home the day he landed, but that was postponed one day due to the traumatic experience.
For the past few weeks, travelers flying through Pearson Airport have filed complaints about lost luggage and delayed or canceled flights. Photographs show thousands of bags sitting idly in the baggage claim area, waiting for owners to come pick them up.
One man told CP24 that he arrived in Toronto 16 days ago and was still waiting for his lost luggage.
The Greater Toronto Airport Authority cited staffing shortages, flight delays and cancellations, and temporary mechanical outages as some of the reasons for “challenges with baggage.”
With files from Jessica Smith and Carol Charles of CTV News Toronto