HONOLULU (AP) — A dog bound for its new owner in Mississippi ended up in Honolulu instead.
American Airlines spokeswoman Andrea Huguely Bethany said the Pembroke Welsh corgi was headed from Seattle to her new owner in Mississippi on Saturday when she made a wrong connection in Dallas. American Airlines says the company is looking at its procedures to figure out how the corgi ended up on the wrong plane.
When breeder Paul Chen was notified that Bethany was misplaced, he reported the dog missing and offered a $1,000 reward.
Bethany left the islands on Monday for Dallas. She was at a Texas kennel on Tuesday and was expected to fly to her new owner on Wednesday.
Such mishaps involving dogs and cats are rare. According to U.S. Department of Transportation figures, 28 pets died, 21 were injured and two were lost by airlines in the first nine months of 2015.
A dog died on an American Airlines flight in April. The airline said it couldn’t determine the cause. A cat escaped from the cargo hold of an American plane in February; the cage door had not been secured with zip ties as required.
Beginning in January, airlines will have to disclose more information about shipments of pets, including the number of animals they carried in the previous year.
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