Rescue dog shot dead at airport

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This article was published 11/04/2018 (2899 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A dog was shot and killed by a wildlife control officer at the Richardson International Airport Monday after running loose on a runway and diverting flights.

“The reality is everyone here feels horrible about this. This is certainly not the outcome that anyone wanted,” said Tyler MacAfee, the Winnipeg Airport Authority’s director of corporate communications and public affairs.

Meantime, the dog rescue group responsible for bringing the animal south said a broken kennel is to blame for the dog’s escape and Transport Canada has been called to investigate what happened.

Around 4:30 p.m. Monday, the airport’s operations centre got a call from Perimeter Aviation warning that a dog had escaped from one of its aircrafts.

The dog, which was a rescue from Shamattawa First Nation being transported to Winnipeg, was running around the tarmac. Staff, including two wildlife control officers in vehicles, spent half an hour trying to corral the Golden Lab mix named Greta, who appeared to be about two years old.

“We actually had a flight that had to abort their landing as a result and unfortunately we weren’t able to move the animal,” MacAfee said. “Unfortunately, one of our wildlife control officers was forced to use lethal force on a feral dog on the airfield. In situations like this, it’s always a last resort and it’s always an incredibly difficult situation or decision that they have to make in those kinds of situations.”

MacAfee said officers would only shoot an animal if “there was a threat to aviation safety.”

Manitoba Mutts executive director Rebecca Norman said Greta was known to be friendly — not feral — and was likely terrified after being chased.

“She was afraid, she had never been on an airplane before. (The dog) jumped out and was being chased by people with guns and vehicles. I think any dog would run from that situation,” Norman said.

The pooch was set to be taken in by a first-time foster family, who was waiting at the Winnipeg airport and wound up “quite traumatized by the ordeal,” Norman said.

Perimeter Aviation and the airport authority are conducting their own internal investigations into the situation.

Tranquilizer guns considered

MacAfee said the airport’s investigation will look at ways the scenario could have been handled differently. Equipping the wildlife control officers with tranquilizer guns rather than shotguns could be a future change, he acknowledged.

Norman said Perimeter airline workers put Greta in a smaller, plastic kennel with a hole in one side, rather than a larger, metal kennel Manitoba Mutts provided. The rescue group didn’t know about the kennel swap until the dog was already in the air.

“She was afraid, she had never been on an airplane before. (The dog) jumped out and was being chased by people with guns and vehicles. I think any dog would run from that situation.”–Rebecca Norman

Carlos Costillo, vice-president of commercial operations for Perimeter, said the airline hasn’t yet confirmed why the kennels were switched, but the metal kennel may not have fit on the plane being used.

Costillo said Perimeter believes the dog chewed through the plastic kennel, making the hole it escaped from.

“We wouldn’t have accepted the kennel with the hole in it,” Costillo said. “And the evidence, it’s pretty clear… that the dog chewed through it.”

Perimeter has been flying dogs south for several rescue groups for about 10 years, Costillo said, and this is the first time a dog has escaped in the cargo hold, to his knowledge.

“We’re very used to handling this type of transportation, but this seems to be a very unusual dog that we had to deal with,” he said.

There was another dog on board, too, who made the trip safely in a kennel provided by Manitoba Mutts.

First time rescue dog has been harmed

Norman said her rescue group has partnered with Perimeter for the past seven years, flying in dogs from remote communities on a weekly basis. This is the first time one of their dogs was harmed.

“There’s regulations for a reason that are put in place and usually followed. We have really never ever seen anything like this happen before,” Norman said.

“It will be nice to be able to talk to the airlines about how to cope with something like this in the future, if a dog gets loose again,” she said. “And we will definitely be buying some higher-quality kennels and having them at Perimeter airlines more often so that this type of scenario is not going to happen (again).

“It’s a slim chance, but always a chance it could happen again. We’re dealing with at-risk animals.”

The airport’s wildlife control officers are licensed to carry firearms on the airfield, MacAfee said, though they rarely use their shotguns.

Instances of pets escaping planes happen about once a year, MacAfee estimated. Usually the animals are tame and their owners can be brought out to calm the pets down and collect them. That wasn’t the case Monday.

“The challenge in this case is where it’s a rescue animal from the north (and) it wasn’t, you know, domesticated the same way,” he said. “So as they tried to corral the animal, it kept turning back to go to the active runway and that’s where the decision had to be made.”

“It’s something where this is not the outcome that anyone wanted,” MacAfee said. “And unfortunately, the situation with this animal, with the way it acted and it coming back to the active runway for a second time, required this to be the outcome.”

Transport Canada responded to an inquiry about the incident Wednesday and the government body said it is not investigating the situation.

“Transport Canada has been in contact with the Winnipeg Airport about this incident, which will be investigated internally by the airport,” a spokesperson said by email.

“Our thoughts are with this dog’s foster family and those who witnessed the incident. Airport operators are responsible for ensuring a safe airfield environment for aircraft taxiing, landing and taking off. This responsibility includes a requirement to manage animals so aviation safety is not compromised,” their statement continued.

“Transport Canada is aware that wildlife control officers at the Winnipeg Airport tried to capture the dog and the department recognizes the decision to shoot it must have been a difficult one to make.”

 

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu