Dog dies in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport warehouse, 17 others rescued

CHICAGO — The city of Chicago has cited an airline cargo service at O’Hare International Airport for neglect and animal cruelty after more than a dozen dogs, one of which died, languished without food or water in a warehouse for three days.

Police said it appears the dogs arrived on an Aug. 28 flight and were left in the warehouse after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refused to release them to the people who had bought them, citing an issue with their vaccination documents, CBS2 reported.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the 17 surviving dogs were rescued Monday following an anonymous tip. Two of the canines – a Belgian Malinois and a German shepherd – were released in good condition to Chicago Animal Care and Control, and the other 15 were released to another agency.

Investigators later learned another dog had died Sunday, CBS2 reported.

The Sun-Times identified the cargo company as Miami-based Alliance Ground International, whose vice president, Warren Jones, said the dogs had been shipped to the United States from Amman, Jordan, on a 13-hour flight.

Jones denied his employees neglected the dogs and told the Sun-Times the animals were walked, fed, watered, cleaned and moved into an air-conditioned part of the warehouse.

“It’s challenging. We move animals every week. We’ve never had a loss of an animal at our company in 30 years,” Jones told the newspaper.

Cox Media Group