Airport worker fired for refusing to load abused dog

Lynne Jones. Photo: AP

An airport baggage handler has become the centre of a national outcry in the US after being fired for refusing to load a dog that appeared to be abused.

Lynne Jones, who worked at Renoe Tahoe Airport, claimed the dog was emaciated, covered with sores, and clearly neglected. She said she feared for its health during the flight from Reno-Tahoe International Airport to Texas.

"It was so thin, it made me cry," she told the Associated Press.

"I kept telling my supervisor, 'That dog is going to die if it gets on that plane,' " Jones said. "He didn't even really look at the dog. He just kept saying: 'The dog is going, the dog is going.'"

Airport police got involved and contacted a local animal welfare agency, which took custody of the dog. And when it was all over, Jones said, she was fired.

Since then, airport bosses flooded with phone calls from an irate public demanding to understand how Jones could be fired - and why the dog was ultimately returned to its owner.

So much fuss was made that Ms Jones has been offered her job back.

The president of Airport Terminal Services (ATS), the private company that employed her five years president, Sally Leible, says she regrets the way the incident was handled, and hoped Ms Jones would come back to work.

According to the Daily Mail, she added: "I think she was courageous in doing that [protecting the dog].

"I really, truly hope she will come back."

Ms Lieble said the company would use the incident as a learning tool to educate workers at the 38 US airports ATS serves and "renew the company's commitment to recognise and report animal abuse of any form".

The firm also promised to donate an unspecified amount of money to the Nevada Humane Society over the next three years.


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