21-year-old college student Belen Aldecosea told the Miami Herald that before she flew home from school, she called Spirit Airlines twice to make sure that she could bring her pet dwarf hamster Pebbles on the plane.
Spirit said that would be no problem. But when she got to the airport in Baltimore, the airline refused to let her bring the furry critter on the flight.
Aldecosea claims a Spirit worker suggested flushing Pebbles down the toilet, which the airline denies happened. But she was in a panic because she needed to get home to take care of a medical issue, so she tried to rent a car.
That didn't work out so she took her beloved Pebbles and flushed her down the toilet.
"She was scared. I was scared. It was horrifying trying to put her in the toilet. I was emotional. I was crying. I sat there for a good 10 minutes crying in the stall.”
The 21-year-old student from Miami Beach is now considering a lawsuit against Spirit, over the conflicting instructions that she says forced her into flushing her doctor-certified emotional support animal.
Spirit Airlines acknowledged that they mistakenly told Aldecosea that she could bring the hamster on the plane, but they deny the toilet suggestion:
“To be clear, at no point did any of our agents suggest this guest (or any other for that matter) should flush or otherwise injure an animal."
Aldecosea says she got Pebbles after a golf ball-sized growth showed up in her neck causing a cancer scare.