Hendrix is six years old, but he made the 3,000 mile journey from Newark airport to Ireland on his own. The English springer spaniel was supposed to make a routine trip from New Jersey to Phoenix but a clerical error by United Airlines sent him to the Emerald Isle, reports the Irish Independent. Hendrix landed in Shannon Airport on Friday morning…just in time for the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations!
The dog’s owner, Edith Albach, from Staten Island, has said that Hendrix had the correct paperwork when she left the dog at the airport. Edith and her family are moving to Arizona and were sending the dog early.
I was not happy. In the future, I’ll drive anywhere I go.
The travel expenses for the dog came to $570, unsurprisingly, the airline are giving the family a full refund.
Mary Clark from United Airlines told ABC New Jersey:
We have apologized and offered a full refund. We want to make this right. We regret that he was boarded on the wrong aircraft. We are doing everything we can to take steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again, this is not typical of the service we provide to the more than 100,000 pets that travel with us every year. United is committed to make travel safe and comfortable for pets that travel with us.
So basically United Airlines are still clueless as to how the dog ended up in Ireland. A love of St. Patrick perhaps?