Our Story in Detail
The detailed events of how our dog Sila was killed is outlined below.
I should note that there are many specifics that we do not know. If Air
Canada knows more details, they are not revealing them to us.
The following text is a copy taken from the main body of a letter I sent and faxed to all Air Canada personnel (actually Zip Airlines which was their subsidiary) that I thought could help us get answers. It was sent to the CEO, the pilots, the complaints department, anybody that I could find that I thought might help in finding answers. This letter was sent before autopsy results were known. All correspondence was particularly difficult since my wife and I travel for work to remote communities in Canada with changing addresses, phone and fax numbers and unreliable Internet. This was sent from Wawa, Ontario and summarizes events in January 2004:
Sila is roughly a 5-year-old dog that has been with my wife and I since a puppy. She came from the Shelter in Cornwall, Ontario. She is a black lab mix, but mostly black lab, weighing about 80 lbs. A beautiful dog with beautiful personality and a best and faithful friend to my wife Beth and I for the last 5 years. She would smile when greeting people. Those who don’t know the teeth of a dog’s smile, are surprised and delighted that a dog can be so happy as to smile often. She visited hospitalized patients with grace and was tolerant with children.
The first thing she did was come on an Air Canada plane with us to live in the Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C.. After a year, we kept traveling and working around Canada. We flew to Moose Factory, Ontario together. We flew to Iqaluit, Nunavut together. Multiple Vancouver to Ottawa connections. And multiple trips by plane to our Smithers home. We virtually always flew Air Canada and happily paid the fare. Her kennel was well worn and padded with blankets and toys and love at either end of her journey. She traveled extremely well, and was never sedated. She had no medical problems or allergies or medications and all immunizations were up to date. A few months before this recent trip she did about a 30 km hike with me up over rocks and snow drifts in the Babine Mountains in B.C. She jumped into the back seat after and wanted to play when we arrive home. In short, she was fit.
In Smithers on January 4, 2004, she went into her kennel just pre departure to Vancouver. The delay on the connection to Winnipeg was less than 30 min, so we elected not to get her out in Vancouver for a walk outside the terminal like we usually do. She was transferred with the rest of our luggage. We peered through the window for before departure to Winnipeg and saw her kennel with our luggage. We generally ask the attendant at the gate to be sure she was on our plane. She was. The flight was uneventful as far as we knew, and our luggage came in Winnipeg and no dog. We waited. Everybody left. Then someone came and said we had to go to “Lost Baggage”. Then someone said. “There’s a problem.” My heart sank, we ran to lost luggage, met blank stares, ran back and there was the kennel and my wife screamed loudly, “She’s not moving!” Next to the carousel I tore the roof off the kennel and tried to stimulate life. She was warm and looked fine but a bit stiff with eyes a bit glossed. No response. I wailed and screamed and hugged her. No response. I thought. “They’ve killed her.” Healthy dog in one end, dead dog out the other. Horrible. My wife was beside herself. Minutes passed, we wailed, the carousel section was abandoned. Nobody wanted to see the source of that wail. We likely loved our dog too much, and our anguish was likely disproportionate and long to a bystander’s point of view. We have no children. This dog was family. We move often, and for those that do, they know that a sense of community is precious when you find it. Our dog kept us that sense of belonging and love, as dogs tend to do.
The Customer Service Manager in Winnipeg said little. He said the crew checked the aircraft and found no flaws. He assured us that air pressure, heat, coolness, and oxygen were all monitored. He said they were because “It’s bad PR to lose a dog.” But he admitted they “lose” one or two a year (to death). He said I’d get a review of the system’s something because they were “looking into it” between Winnipeg and Vancouver. We have heard nothing. I’m not clear what I’m looking for from him. He said we should get a taxi and gave us a vet phone #. Upon my repeated insistence that no taxi wants a dead dog, he eventually found a kind employee that would drive us to the vet. The pickup truck to the vet, the goodbye, the expected “I don’t know” from the vet. The VISA card given for autopsy and word we’d get back in a week or so the results.
At the time of writing this, we still await the autopsy results. I doubt it will find anything. I hope we do find an aneurysm or something clearly medical in Sila, then there’s nobody to blame, and this horrible event can be put behind us. But if we don’t, then you killed her. Given the exceedingly healthy dog that we put in the kennel on one end, and the semi warm but dead dog that you delivered us on the other end, I can see no other explanation. I would like one, and I would like a good one. No family should have to go what we went though. No animal should either.
Please reply,
Darren Jakubec on behalf of Beth and myself and Sila.
[No reasonable reply was ever received. We did talk to people at Zip Airlines. No apologies or explanations came. Soon after this letter was sent, we received the autopsy results. The secretary at the vet clinic said people from Air Canada had been there daily looking for results. They weren’t returning our calls, but they wanted our dog’s records without our permission. We gave them the results anyways.
The autopsy results showed the cause of death as “Probable carbon monoxide poisoning”. The report went on to list all the features of carbon monoxide poisoning that were present. They are very specific findings. I should note that there is no 100% specific test for carbon monoxide, but this is as convincing as you can get.]
The following text is an excerpt of a letter sent to Stephen Smith, the then President and CEO of Zip Airlines in Calgary after the autopsy results were found:
Dear Stephen Smith,
I am writing to update you about Sila, our dog. You may remember, Sila was killed in January. Since our last correspondence, I have tried to get a lawyer. The lawyer that reviewed everything felt I didn’t have much of a chance at legal action. He said your Airline will never admit they killed our dog. I said I realize Zip Air says they are not liable for the death of a dog. I also realize and understand animals die at times. If my dog died of natural causes while under their care, I could accept that. However, my dog did not just die, she was killed by carbon monoxide. I cannot believe airlines have “exclusion from liability” for killing pets. Clearly this freedom to kill pets is not what is implied in their legal speak. I am not a lawyer. But I know when there is a clear difference between right and wrong. And I cannot believe that this is the Zip Air’s stance...
[I did not get a reply to this letter, I suppose that is because I was talking to a lawyer. Stephen Smith is one of the few people that did actually talk to us. But he did not apologize or offer any explanation. After this letter, we found another lawyer, Kate Kempton in Toronto. Details of our legal proceeding are listed in other links.]