A woman was arrested at a Las Vegas airport and accused of abandoning her 2-year-old goldendoodle at the JetBlue ticket counter because she did not have the proper paperwork to take the puppy on the flight.
The Feb. 2 incident was captured on video at Harry Reid International Airport. The woman, whose face was blurred in the video, was booked on charges of animal abandonment and resisting arrest.
Officers were called to the airport just before 11:40 p.m. after they received reports of a dog that had been left behind at the ticket counter, police said in a Facebook statement.
The video shows the woman walking up to the counter with the dog running around behind her. That section of the video clip does not include audio. The woman eventually walks away, leaving the dog's leash tied to a ticket counter.
Police said the woman was told that she did not have the proper paperwork to travel with the animal as a service dog and was denied a boarding pass. The woman went to her departure gate anyway, where officers eventually found her.
In the video, an officer tells the woman that she's going to get a citation.
"Well, I was trying to rebook my flight," the woman responds.
"So you walked out here to rebook your flight?" the officer asks.
"Yeah, that’s what they told me at the counter," she says.
"To walk out here without your dog?" the officer says.
Police said the woman claimed that the dog had a tracking device, "implying it was acceptable to leave the animal behind and it would return to her."
The department said she became "hostile" and "resisted officers' attempts to detain her" as she was escorted back through security.
"We can’t believe we have to say this... but please don’t abandon your dog at the airport — or anywhere else," police said in the Facebook post.
The dog, nicknamed "Jet Blue," was looked after by airport staff and officers until animal protective services took custody of it, police said. After the woman failed to pick up the dog following a 10-day hold period, it was placed in the care of the nonprofit Retriever Rescue of Las Vegas.
Police said Jet Blue is now safe and in foster care.
"This sweet boy is incredible. Truly incredible. And after everything he’s been through, the thought of him ever experiencing abandonment again has us on very high alert. We will be extremely intentional in choosing his forever family," Retriever Rescue of Las Vegas said in a statement. "He deserves stability. Security. Commitment. A lifetime promise."
