An Ohio woman is outraged after Air Canada straight up lost her dog and then sent out a startling email in response to her complaint.
Here’s how the events went down-
Jutta Kulic originally of Medina, OH promised her friend before she died of cancer that she would find a home for Larry, her two-year-old greyhound. And she did, in Campbell River, British Columbia.
That’s where Larry was headed this week- on a flight from San Francisco to Vancouver- when the flight was unexpectedly canceled and an Air Canada employee decided to take Larry for a walk, despite Kulic’s specific instructions not to let the pup out of his zip-tied crate unless he was in a secured space.
“I very clearly instructed them never, ever to open the door and let the dog out of that crate, unless he’s in a completely enclosed room,” Kulic said told the Huffington Post. “Air Canada had been given those instructions explicitly, more than one time, when I dropped off the dog,” she said from her home in California.
Clearly, those instructions were given a good old heave-ho, and the dog escaped as soon as his crate was opened.
It took Air Canada several hours to grow the balls to call Kulic and tell her the news. When they finally did, they promised her that full efforts were underway to find the dog.
As Kulic waited for more news, she took to social media to voice her complaints about Air Canada’s treatment of the situation. Her complaints caught the attention of several California-based media outlets, including CBS13, who reached out to Air Canada looking for answers.
Instead, CBS13 got this response from Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick:
- CBS13
“I think I would just ignore, it is local news doing a story on a lost dog,” the Air Canada email read. “Their entire government is shut down and about to default and this is how the US media spends its time.”
The response appears to be intended for an internal co-worker.
CBS13 shared the response with Kulic, who, naturally, was shocked.
“I thought it was incredibly callous and I also was horrified that they would think that of our government.”
She went on to say she was offended on two levels: “[B]oth a personal level and then also on a national level. I was greatly insulted. I’m not sure I know what else to say.”
Air Canada’s Facebook page has since been pummeled with comments and fiery demands. Some animal lovers have even threatened to boycott the airline until they find the dog.
But Kulic said she’s heard “a couple solid reports” on social media that Larry was hit, though she hasn’t “talked to anyone who can confirm he was killed,” Canada.com reports.
Kulic said she’s forgiven the employee who let the dog out, maintaining that they were “trying to do something nice and they made a huge mistake.”
As for Mr. Fitzpatrick, she thinks he deserves the boot.
“Everybody has asked me whether I think the Air Canada employee who took the dog for a walk should lose their job and I said ‘no, someone was trying to do something nice and they made a huge mistake.’ I don’t want that to ever happen again,” she said.
“But I’ll tell you, I think the person that sent this email should go somewhere else.”
This article appears in Oct 9-15, 2013.
Its a lost dog, get another one … but fix the government!!
It’s Air Canada, the least they could do is say “Sorey.”
It’s a sad mistake. A MISTAKE, meaning non intentional. Have forgiveness Judtta. I don’t believe it was worth bringing to the medias attention. The media here in the US does revolve around unimportant drama. We all feed into it and it’s very unfortunate. I think that Mr. Fitzpatrick was trying to bring us all to an awareness that in the bigger picture of what’s happening around the world; all the real pain and suffering that is occurring…WE SHOULD ALL BE FOCUSED ON THAT!!!! NOT A LOST DOG ISSUE! He’s should have probably kept his opinions to himself. Not a very professional statement on his part! ADELLE
She didn’t seek out the media. The media sought her out. If people are going to lay blame, at least make sure you have your facts straight, considering the article is … oh… RIGHT ABOVE the comment box. [Did ANYONE pass English? Damn. ] It was a mistake on the part of someone trying to do a good deed and not have the pup facilitate him/herself in the carrier, and naturally being a greyhound–the dog skee-daddled. That was thoughtful of that person to not have the dog crap itself. However, it WAS callous what Fitzpatrick said. And it was HIS mistake for not paying attention to emails and just sent things all *willy-nilly*. Now he may be out of a job. Not good PR. I do believe the media (even though it IS sh*tty and places more of a concern on M.C’s skanky actions and who’s preggers in Hollyweird than anything else) cannot just do 24 hours of politics. We have MSNBC, FOX News, CNN, CSPANs 1, 2, and 3 and even Sunday morning Bobbleheads ( I mean talking heads .. not the band), and every other blasted thing to remind us that Congress is rather fracked. Any reporter’s job is to get a story that no one else has… no matter how little. Everyone and their damn cousin is talking about the government, even the drunks at the bar. And it wasn’t even about a lost dog… it was about the fact that SOMEONE’S DYING WISH was for an animal to go to a good home and the airline biffed it. Who knows. Maybe someone thought that bringing the story out might help someone locate the animal. Hopefully it wasnt killed. There’s a serious lack of compassion in this world with everyone trying to be the first sphincter to cast judgments.
Over and above the unfortunate situation with the dog, to us Canadians this story is just another of many sad examples of how this airline treats people and customers in general. Air Canada has a reputation for being arrogant, rude and without any kind of meaningful customer service skills. They remain in business because Canadians only have two choices for domestic travel.
What exactly is she upset about ‘on a national level?’ Air Canada pretty much hit the nail on the head. Everything else they said was callous indeed. But does she think the government is doing just fine?
Wait…what does this have to do with being offended about what Air Canada said about the U.S.? I think the point was, “the media has much bigger issues to cover, so why are they spending time on a missing dog.” Clearly some of you–including the women whose dog is lost (and yes, she should be angry, and Air Canada should deal with this)–are missing the point.
What does the loss of a beloved pet have to do with the asinine opinions of an Air Canada worker? She’s expressing justified outrage at Air Canada’s incompetency and depraved indifference, and they (as well as some of the assclowns on here) dismiss her concerns as trivial. When it comes to economic and social problems, Canada’s got enough of its own, including one of the worst socialist health care systems in the world. For you ObamaCare supporters, that’s a preview of coming attractions.
When you work in PR, even when you don’t really care about something, you pretty much have to for the sake of the customer. Customers are the ones that give you a job and pay your salary, so for a service based company, your customer service is everything. How a spokesman for an airline could make such a big mistake is absolutely astounding, and this lady is absolutely right to call for his head in the form of him getting fired. For my part, I’m glad to report that now I have a negative opinion of Air Canada. If ever given the choice between Air Canada and another airline, I’ll be sure to choose the other airline. Why fly Air Canada when any complaint you have about bad service will basically be mocked and ignored? I mean, if a dying wish being fulfilled is subject to this kind of treatment, what are they going to say when they keep you waiting in the terminal for 18 hours and you’re sleeping on the floor overnight? “Sorry, but at least we aren’t mocking you, eh?”