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Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 8:44 p.m. ET: Lynn Jones says she is considering the offer of her old job from Airport Terminal Services.
Original post: The Nevada baggage handler whose dismissal for trying to help a sick and starving dog created a national outcry has been offered her old job back at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
The woman, Lynn Jones of Reno, was fired last month when she insisted that the dog be taken to a veterinarian.
"I was crying," Jones says. "I said, 'This dog's going to die.'"
Jones' story took off this week after it was reported by NBC station KRNV of Reno.
Jones worked for a separate company not run by the airport, but the airport's chief executive, Krys Bart — who is on the board of directors of the Nevada Humane Society — said she still received more than 250 emails and 100 phone calls from angry animal lovers demanding that Jones be rehired.
Tuesday, Airport Terminal Services, the private company that employed Jones, told The Associated Press that it would offer Jones her job back, with back pay. ATS President Sally Leible said she regretted the way the incident was handled and hoped Jones would accept the offer.
Jones previously told KRNV that her ATS supervisor ordered her to allow the dog on to the plane, but when she resisted, she was told: "You're done. Go home."
Jones says she returned to the airport in time to see Airport Police and Washoe County Animal Services personnel gather up the dog and take it to a veterinarian for treatment. She says her employers deactivated her security badge and refused to return her phone calls.
Authorities say that three days later, the dog was allowed to fly.
In a statement on its website, ATS said it "takes this situation extremely seriously and commends this employee's situational awareness and her desire to raise the concern on behalf of the canine involved."
NBC station KRNV and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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No mention of the dog's owners, where it was coming from and going to, how long it had been in a crate without food or water? No mention of charges against the owners?
We have here a typical MSNBC half-an-article, leaving us to fill in the essential blanks by looking elsewhere.
This sounds like the case of the horses that was in the news a few months ago. Switch and Bate. I'm sure the owner thought they were getting a very expensive dog and instead recieved this dog. The sellers may never be found.
It wasn't for sale, it was being shipped to a hunting ground.
I agree!!!!!! Where and what about the scumbag OWNER?? If I was with the SPCA, the OWNER would have been arested for "Animal Cruelty"!!!!!
SIGNED: DANIEL L. BUSHEY
If you watched the video instead of foaming at the mouth, you'd have seen that according to Nevada law, nobody involved is allowed to discuss the details of what happened to the dog.
The owner should have been put on the dog cage while the dog takes his seat....what a scumbag....
What the story *didn't* mention was the fate of the supervisor who fired her for showing compassion.
If nothing is being done there, bet your bottom dollar that the supervisor was following existing company policy.
What's really telling is that only public outcry reinstated this good woman's job...not any common sense on the company's part.
The original story a couple days ago included the information about the owner. The dog was sent back to the owner in Corpus Christi Texas after it had been treated at a veterinarian hospital. Why anyone would send an animal back to a person who would treat it in such a way would be the current question to ask. Also are SPCA in Corpus Christi following up to make sure the jerk doesn't mistreat the poor animal again?
You may not remember but in 2001 one of the terrorists was stopped by a checker in a Florida airport for having a box-cutter but the supervisor overrode the airport checker and sent that checker home also.
Capitalism = money. Socialism = care.
There must be a balance that can be reached.
Steve. It is obvious you haven't a clue concerning the definition of socialism.
Was the supervisor fired? He/she should have been. The rehiring and back pay is an attempt to stop the law suit that rightfully should be filed.
I can't remember the year but I think it was around 2003 in San Bernardino CA. the woman in charge of the counties dog shelter was fired from her job or resigned not sure for having a dog that was in so bad of shape that the dog's hair had become matted around the dogs behind and it couldn't poop. It was unbelievable that a woman or man in charge of animals would let their own dog suffer in such a way. Shame on her.
I used to work for this company. Let me lay it out for you. Starting pay now is lower than it was in 2008 and 2009 because they have such a high turnover rate and so many people need jobs, they lowered the hourly wage by over a dollar an hour. Really responsible huh. This is the worst contractor to work for and have do ground service. The airline policy is if an animal looks sick or like it has been sedated, it cannot fly. Clearly this is an incident of another incompetent supervisor being in position of authority and ATS still cannot accept responsibility.
As far as the food and water. The individuals at cargo provide food and water given by the owner and note the time it was last fed. They feed and water the animal 1 hour before the flight leaves if i remember correctly. As i said, worst contractor in the business. Cheap, unsafe, lies, incompetence. All their equipment has bald tires and if you crash running bags they fire you and blame you
atsstl.com if youd like to send them your thoughts.
I live in Reno. The story first broke in the Sunday morning paper here. By noon the community was in an uproar. In the comments section of the story online people had researched contacts at the airport authority as well as the vendor that does the baggage handling that employed Lynn and the scumbag supervisor who fired her. The dog was not being sold...the dog was a hunting RENTAL, if you can believe that. The flight for which Lynn refused to board the dog was the return trip back to the dog's owner in Texas; they know who he is. Our Washoe County DA is investigating to see who can be charged and with what crime. Trust me, someone's head will roll. We take animal abuse VERY seriously in Nevada. We presently have some convicted animal abuser doing time in prison. We animal lovers in Washoe County feel we played a part by raising enough hell over the story....sending emails to all the major networks and new outlets in addition to the authorities. The Power of The People at it's finest.
You can check out the story from the very beginning before it went viral: www.RGJ.com
We're Nevadans and we love our animals; humans, not so much.
Thanks for telling us. Your post was more informative than the article itself.
If you want to hear the real story go to the source. Corpus Christi Caller Times the newspaper of Corpus Christi where the owner of the dog lives. The dog is fine, once again people overreact over nothing. Animal Control was at the owners house yesterday and verified that the dog was safe and healthy.
Not only should she be offered her job back with back pay, she should be offered a promotion to replace the idiot that canned her in the first place.
I love seeing the passion people have for a helpless animal, but can't help thinking...perhaps this is an aside...wondering if some of the same people would be so moved if a vulnerable person was involved.
I wish we took care of eachother as well as many of us care for animals.
Well I have to say it seems congress treats WE The People like this dog was treated... So some people do treat others like they treat dogs.
This isn't about people or kids. It is about a mistreated dog! Get over yourself. Not everything is about humans. In this case it is one of your precious humans that maltreated this poor dog so who really cares if if the situation was reversed? There are always people who care about humans, they are standing around with cameras all the time taking pictures of some poor human who is in trouble. This was a good woman who saved a dog and we don't need to worry about the humans who aren't being helped.....
Wow, just...wow.
Is this were we are now?
I think we get very passionate about our domesticated animals because they rely on us for everything. It is also why people get so passionate about victims of child abuse. Children depend on adults to do the right thing. The way we treat those who depend on us the most speaks to our society. I will forever be glad to live somewhere that a woman will risk her livelihood to save a dog who needed help. I am all for helping adults if they are working to help themselves. If they are just sitting there taking a hand out and not trying to improve their situations, you have to ask is the help warranted.
"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you,
not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these."
Helping those in need is not about judgement.
Jesus did not check employment status before giving out the bread and fish. He never charged anyone for healing them.
Those examples are there for a reason.
I am so happy she got her job back.She should be proud of herself for doing the right thing.I agree with people who say she should replace her supervisor.If more people were like her this world would be alot better place.
Just sometimes, people (and corporations) do the right thing. I await the identification and excoriation of the person responsible for shipping the injured dog with confidence.
I would've done the same thing. Avid dog lover.
I wrote this when the story first broke. I think it still holds true.
"The woman will get her job back. Had she not done this, she would have been guilty of animal abuse, which is illegal in most states. The police can support her statements as they are the ones who contacted the appropriate persons to save this animal.
My questions are: why was the owner of the dog not prosecuted? Where is the owner? Has the ASPCA filed charges against the owner (and supervisor) for deliberately allowing this animal to be endangered?
I have no love lost for dogs, but I won't see any animal tortured or abused because someone else is too lazy to live up to his/her responsibilities or obligations--morally and/or legally. One should never own an animal if he/she is unwilling to appropriately care for it."
She's been offered her job back, the company has been shamed for its behavior, and the dog (so far) has survived. It'll be interesting to see what happens from here. BTW--the supervisor and the dog's owner, in my opinion, are total asses.
The owner was some rich redneck Hunter obviously he has no regard for an animals life he hunts and kills them. If you need meat the grocery store is not far away, It amazes me these guys think their Macho because they hunt and kill innocent animals you should see some of the deer they kill down here in TX no bigger than a German Shepherd 60-70 lbs Wow that's what I call a Macho Man.
I would rather eat venison from a deer that I killed myself, than the hormone and antibiotic infested meat that is sold at the grocery store. We have done away with most of the natural preditors of game animals so hunting is neccissary in a lot of areas to keep populations in check.... as for your deer in TX... I think you've just proven that everything is not bigger in Texas. Our deer in the PNW are a lot bigger than that... and We have a lot of them... I hit one on the freeway about a month ago and did of $4000 damage to my car. I would have prefered to eat her rather than have her die like that.
MOST hunters ethically kill and eat / utilize all of what they harvest. I am a vegetarian, however, I support ethical, responsible hunting. I'd damn sure not want to buy meat from a grocery store since that comes from feedlot raised, inhumanely housed & slaughtered animals from factory farms.
So lay off hunters and direct your comments to the ONE hunter who mistreated his dog.
Hunting is a good thing. But in Texas there are a lot of canned hunts. That is wrong. Hunting in a fenced area is not hunting. It is slaughtering.
This lady should receive salary increase. If it were a human child in as obvious distress, would she have been told: "your done"?
She very likely would have Old Paul, trust me, no good deed goes unpunished, at least in this world, fortunately there's one who keeps account of such things and rewards accordingly. Happy Holidays.
At least there's one person who isn't just a drone.
My hat off to you Lady, we have to stand up for animal rights EVERYWHERE. They can't speak, they need us to care. We are responsible for them.
Good for her! More people need to have her tenacity. The dog's "guardian" obviously cares less about the dog than a perfect stranger. Thank goodness she stepped in and made a fuss otherwise the poor dog likely would've died.
It was a rental animal. You know what they say about rented mules? The owner probably rented a healthy animal to this jerk of a hunter who did not take care of it. If the owner sees that the dog was mistreated you can be the jerk lost his deposit. Maybe even got punched in the nose.
As I like most dogs a lot better than I like most people, I would have done what this lady did without giving it a second thought. They could have taken their job and stuck it up their a$$. Someone has to speak for those, including animals as well as people, who can't speak for themselves. Having been a policeman for over twenty years I can tell you that doing the right thing is never easy and seldom results in any accolades but more often then not a lot of pain and heartache, but you keep doing it anyway because it's the right thing to do if you're a person that actually gives a $hit. I'm glad to see that a lot of people rallied to her defense, this woman has my utmost respect and thanks for doing the right thing even though she probably knew full well it would cost her personally. It's too bad we can't find a few thousand more like her and replace our public "servants" with then. It would be a much better world as a result.
I'd make them fire the boss that told her to load the dog. Get rid of the trash, and bring back the good employee.
What is this outfit in Texas that rents hunting dogs? I would like to send them a sharply worded letter.
As a professional pet shipper...this women did the right thing! Puppytravel!
Sounds as if the person who fired her should be the one fired!
Seems no action was taken against the supervisor that acted like such a jerk. Also, no action against the owner in Corpus Christi Texas -- except they flew the dog to him after it was nursed back to health. You'd think they'd at least make him pay the vet bills before returning the dog to his care. He'd have probably relinquished before paying up and the dog would have gotten a second chance at a good life with a decent owner.
A prime example of the way people abuse their authority when they think no one is watching.
If I was her, I would hire a lawyer, demand that the company makes the appropriate policy change, else you will have me in the other side with the press.
PETA is always so anxious to jump in the middle of wrongdoers with both feet. If they wanted a little bit of POSITIVE publicity for a change, why don't they recognize this woman publicly? Even a 2-line press release would help their image.