SF-bound passenger reunited with canine after it escaped on runway

An airline supplied a lady touring to California money after her canine was misplaced en path to San Francisco.

The canine turned separated from its proprietor after border management canceled the proprietor’s visa. The animal then spent three weeks wandering the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia.

Paula Rodriguez and her canine Maia, a 6-year-old Chihuahua combine, have been touring Aug. 18 on Delta Air Lines from the Dominican Republic, her home nation, to trip in San Francisco. Rodriguez’s visa was canceled, according to CNNand she or he spent the night time in a detention middle earlier than returning home. U.S. Customs and Border Protection doesn’t permit pets to stick with detained passengers throughout processing; the pets develop into the air provider’s duty.

When Rodriguez arrived on the gate earlier than her flight again to the Dominican Republic, Maia was nowhere to be discovered. U.S. Customs and Border Protection instructed Rodriguez to fly home with out her.

“[A Delta agent] said that she was being transported [to the plane] on the runway, and staff had opened her kennel, and she had got out of the car and escaped into the middle of the runway,” Rodriguez instructed CNN.

On Aug. 30, almost two weeks after Maia went lacking, Paula Rodriguez’s sister, Daniela, opened a GoFundMe asking for assist. The web page stated Delta declined to proceed looking past airport property. Daniela wrote that Maia had been by her sister’s facet for almost seven years and accused Delta of insufficient care of the canine.

A spokesperson for Delta Air Lines instructed SFGATE in an e-mail that the airline performed “active, round-the-clock visual searches of the airfield,” together with at night time utilizing night time imaginative and prescient goggles. The spokesperson additionally stated that Delta saved in contact with animal shelters and veterinarian places of work close to the airport.

Volunteer animal restoration specialist Robin Allgood began a Facebook group to help find the dog on the finish of August. She acquired a name from a FedEx cargo employee who stated he had noticed Maia. After a wild goose chase between the airport and the FedEx cargo building, Allgood lastly gained clearance and was capable of seize the canine out from beneath a rack.

“Tired but in apparent good health, she was transported to a vet and is expected to return home soon,” the Atlanta Airport wrote on social media on Sept. 10.

Maia and Rodriguez have been reunited Sept. 12, in response to the Facebook page.