Dozens of puppies on passenger flight from Ukraine to Canada are found dead on arrival
- WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
- 500 French Bulldogs were discovered crammed in boxes aboard Ukrainian flight
- Surviving animals were found suffering dehydration, weakness and vomiting
- One witness at the airport said: ‘You could just smell death and kind of faeces’
- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has launched an investigation
Canadian authorities have launched an investigation after dozens of caged puppies died and hundreds more fell violently sick on a passenger flight from Kiev.
Around 500 French Bulldogs were discovered crammed in boxes aboard a Ukraine International Airlines plane which landed at Toronto airport on Saturday.
Thirty-eight of the dogs were dead on arrival and the surviving animals were discovered suffering dehydration, weakness and vomiting.
Abby Lorenzen, a dog handler who was picking up a friend’s pet from the airport, told Global News: ‘You could just smell death and kind of faeces, urine.’
Around 500 French Bulldogs were discovered crammed in boxes aboard a Ukraine International Airlines plane which landed at Toronto airport on Saturday
French Bulldogs are a popular breed of fog in Canada and fetch up to $4,000 on the lucrative puppy market (file photo)
Another picture shows rows of the cages trapping the dogs stacked up
Photos on her social media show two supposedly dead dogs piled on top of each other in a single claustrophobic container.
Another picture shows rows of the cages trapping the dogs stacked up beside the plane’s hold.
Ms Lorenzen added: ‘Those animals didn’t need to suffer like that. That airline should of never taken on so [many] live animals to begin with.”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency ‘will determine the next steps once the investigation is complete’.
Ukrainian Airlines said: ‘Everyone at UIA offers its condolences for the tragic loss of animal life on our flight.
‘UIA is working with local authorities to determine what happened and to make any changes necessary to prevent such a situation from occurring again.’
Photos on her social media show two supposedly dead dogs piled on top of each other in a single claustrophobic container
French Bulldogs are a popular breed of fog in Canada and fetch up to $4,000 on the lucrative puppy market.
Scott Weese of the University of Guelph told CBC that most buyers believe the animals are bred in Canada.
But he said ‘we have no idea how many dogs come in, where they go, where they come from,’ adding that there was ‘potentially some organized crime component.’
‘You mentioned 500 French bulldogs. If those are going for sale at $3,000 to $4,000 a dog, that’s a massive amount of money,’ he told the broadcaster.