Airport worker fired after refusing to load dog

[didymus]

Yahoo! News:

Airport worker fired after refusing to load dog

RENO, Nevada (AP) — Airport baggage handler Lynn Jones saw the sad look on the listless, emaciated dog sitting in a pet carrier and knew something was wrong. Then she saw that its body was covered with sores and its paws were worn raw.
“It was so thin, it made me cry,” she said.
If that dog gets on that plane, she remembered thinking, it would certainly die. And when she refused a supervisor’s orders to load it onto the Texas-bound flight, she was fired.
Now, a month after the incident at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, the dog has recovered. And Jones, while her former employer and airport officials have praised her for her actions, remains without her old job.

Peggy Hohl, vice president of employee services for Jones’ former employer, Airport Terminal Services Inc., based in St. Louis, said in an email that the company is taking the matter “very seriously.”
A statement posted on the company’s web site said officials were investigating, and that the company “commends this employee’s situational awareness and her desire to raise the concern on behalf of the canine.”
“ATS is reviewing the actions of all employees involved to determine if the appropriate action was taken,” it said.

 

[Dale_M]

Surprisingly, the dog was returned to its owner.

The dog was shipped back to Texas after being nursed back to health and examined by a veterinarian, airport officials said. Under Cooney’s Law, officials said, they can’t release the incident report or the photos of the animal, but said they were sickened by its condition.

“In all my years here, this is the first time I’m thoroughly disgusted over what I understand to be the situation this animal was put in,” said Krys Bart, CEO of the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority, who also is on the board of the Nevada Humane Society. “… I’m proud of (airport police) officers. They had an affirmative responsibility to deal with this, and that’s what they did.”

She said she is frustrated that, under the new law, she can’t share the report or the photos with the public. She said she was out of town when the incident occurred but determined later that the dog had been abused prior to arriving at the airport.

rgj.com/article/20111203/NEWS/112040365/Nevada-air-cargo-worker-loses-job-after-reporting-animal-abuse?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Cooney’s Law was passed last year in Nevada in response to an incident where a dog was tortured. The law makes animal abuse a felony, instead of a misdemeanor.