Delta Airlines held dog hostage for 33 hours, claims pet owner

An eight-month-old German Shepherd was held hostage by Delta Airlines for more than 33 hours over paperwork that airline officials misplaced, the pet's owner has claimed.

Mary Nguyen, a 25-year-old student living in Minneapolis, decided to relocate her German Shepherd named Bunny to Guatemala so he could live with her husband.

The "hostage" situation began last week, when Nguyen hired Pet Air Carrier, a private company unaffiliated with Delta, paying it USD 3,000 to ship Bunny.

As part of the arrangement, Nguyen drove from Minneapolis to Wisconsin to have the required paperwork endorsed before sending the puppy on his way on Wednesday.

But when Nguyen's hubby tried to get Bunny out of cargo at La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Delta balked, saying the necessary paperwork to take the animal to a new country had been left back in the US, CBS reported.

Adding insult to injury, Nguyen claimed Delta agents demanded an extra USD 3,000 to free the pup.

"They have all the documents they need on their scratch pad to release her but refuse to do so without the hard copy that they lost (but tracked down)," a distraught Nguyen was quoted as saying by the CBS.

"The document has been in their possession the whole (time) since I've surrendered my dog over." "After 33 hours, they finally released Bunny," she said.

That happened late Friday, after the paperwork was finally located and dispatched to Guatemala.

Delta has had problems transporting pets in the past, with five animal deaths and five injuries in 2016, the second-highest rate of animal death and injury among the top seven domestic airlines.

A Delta spokesperson said that the airline would refund the shipment cost.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)