HAMILTON, Ontario – A golden labradoodle that escaped after it was mistakenly put on a WestJet plane to the Ontario city has been found.
The dog’s owners say Cooper was supposed to be flown on a WestJet flight from Halifax to Deer Lake, N.L., on Wednesday to stay with family while they headed to Jamaica for a wedding.
But the dog was somehow placed on a flight to Hamilton instead and broke away at the airport when an employee took it outside for a bathroom break, the CBC reported.
WestJet apologized for the mishap and flew the dog’s owners to Hamilton on Thursday where they joined a search for Cooper.
That search lasted more than 24 hours until the dog was spotted Friday morning.
“It’s the most overwhelming feeling of happiness,” Chelsea Simon, one of the dog’s owners, said shortly after finding the dog around 9 a.m.
The dog was wet, dirty and starving, but otherwise healthy, she said.
A spokeswoman for WestJet said the airline has offered to pay Cooper’s vet bill and will work on getting the dog and his owners back home.
“Our primary focus was reuniting Cooper and his owner,” Lauren Stewart said. “In the days ahead, we will review our procedures in an effort to determine what happened and make changes if needed to prevent future, similar occurrences.”
