IRRESPONSIBLE #owner sends #German #Shepherd on 3,000 mi one-way flight

Promise you won't ever do that to me?  I promise. 

Dog Returned to Sender by #Irrespondible #Owner

By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI New York Times (Edited)

  On Oct. 4, Jason Dubin drove to La Guardia Airport to pick up the newest member of his household. Six days after that first happy meeting, Mr. Dubin returned to La Guardia with that same member, a German shepherd named Emmi,   and sent her on a Continental Airlines flight to Seattle with a one-way ticket. 

   “I just couldn’t control her anymore; it was just time to part ways,” said Mr. Dubin, who bought the 80-pound dog over the Internet for $7,500 from Kraftwerk K9, a company in Rochester, Wash. “Emmi was portrayed to us as an obedient, well-trained, even-tempered dog,” Mr. Dubin said. “But within a week, I  realized that Emmi was an aggressive dog who posed a great danger to my family.” 

     So Mr. Dubin shipped Emmi back to the West Coast, but there was no one there to greet her when she arrived, safe in her crate, at Seattle-Tacoma Airport on Monday afternoon. After lingering in the company of pushcarts and lost luggage, Emmi was forced to spend a night in a Seattle kennel. ` “Why would Mr. Dubin abandon his dog like that?” Wayne Curry, the owner of Kraftwerk K9, said in a telephone interview. Good question. 

     The reasons were: (1) Emmi, who was born and raised in Germany, was not responding to German commands like “sitz” (sit), “fuss” (heel) and “aus” (let go). (2) Emmi was terrorizing the Dubin’s pet cat. (3) Emmi had tried to bite Dubin’s 8-year-old son. (4) and  had bitten another dog on the face. 

     Both sides argued about whether or not Dubin told Curry within a 72-hour period that he didn’t want the dog.  Then there are arguments with Continental, which shipped the dog 3,000 miles with no one to pick up Emmi at the destination.  Continental said, “We followed all standard procedures, and the animal arrived at its destination safely.”  But that wasn’t quite the point.  Somehow, by following the rules, Continental sent a dog on a long flight in a cage with no one to care for it at the other end. 

     Curry eventually had the dog picked up and paid the $115 boarding fee. ` “I’m glad he picked her up,” Dubin said. “I was worried that Emmi might be destroyed in a shelter somewhere if no one claimed her. That’s not what I wanted.”  Hmm: he says that now.  

     My reaction: and they're arresting Occupy Wall Street protestors in New York for nothing, while the owner of Emmi walks free?

     “I just couldn't live without dogs.”  #Tara #Reid