As airlines have progressively put more and more effort into making commercial flight an actively miserable experience, there’s an emerging class of passenger who seems only too happy to help. Airline passengers with an enlarged sense of their own entitlement have ranged from the businessman who got in a fight because he used a device that stopped the seat in front of him from reclining to reports of Orthodox Jews who demanded changes in seating arrangements so that they wouldn’t have to sit next to women.
And now, dog lovers have one of our own who just has to be treated like a special snowflake.
As most of us know, there are certain responsibilities that come with being a dog owner and taking your pet out into public spaces. One of the basics is that you keep your dog from threatening or attacking other people. That goes double or triple when you’re crammed into an airplane cabin, but it’s a requirement that the woman in the video below just didn’t seem to understand.
As her United Airlines flight from Salt Lake City to Chicago was departing, the unnamed woman’s dog was apparently snapping and growling at the crew. They asked her to put the dog back in the carrier, which she refused to do, so the plane returned to the gate so that she and the dog could be removed.
The video, which has been going viral lately, was mostly shot at the gate, as they were trying to remove the woman from the plane. At this point, not only has she refused to restrain her hostile and misbehaving dog, but she begins swearing at the airplane crew and the security officer who’s come on board to remove her. When she finally realizes that there’s no way she’s going to win, in true American fashion she responds with threat of a lawsuit. “Don’t you take my dog,” she yelled. “If you take my dog, I’m going to sue this country.” All we know of her ultimate fate is that a United Airlines spokesman told the press: “The passenger was removed by local law enforcement, and the flight continued to Chicago.”
If anyone ever wants to make a case for not having dogs on airplanes — or even in public spaces — this one woman has just provided them with the perfect example to make their argument. We may love dogs, but that comes with responsibilities to the people around us, especially if the dog becomes aggressive. This is a woman who has completely failed in those responsibilities and made a lot of people miserable in the process.
Watch the video below and see if you agree. Then tell us: What arrangements do you make when travelling with your dog? What do you wish other people would do?
Read more about dogs on Dogster:
