A woman drowned her dog in a bathroom at a Florida airport before boarding her international flight, after she was stopped from taking her dog aboard due to a paperwork issue, The Guardian reported.
Alison Lawrence arrived at the Orlando International Airport on December 16 with her dog, Tywinn, for a flight to Colombia. However, she was told that her paperwork was incomplete and that she won’t be allowed to take her pet. Shortly after, airport staff found the dog’s lifeless body in one of the women’s bathrooms. Animal services were called to the scene and confirmed that the cause of death was drowning, as reported by NBC’s WESH.
According to ABC News, the 57-year-old was arrested in Lake County on Wednesday on a charge of aggravated animal abuse, a third-degree felony. She was released on $5,000 bail. The investigation into the death of the 9-year-old white schnauzer named Tywinn started in December when a janitor found the dog in a trash bag in a bathroom stall at Orlando International Airport.
The now-viral footage of Lawrence with her dog at the airport triggered outrage, and social media users are demanding stringent actions against her.
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Reacting to the CCTV footage, a user wrote, “I’d rather cancel my flight and take that dog with me, if I’m happen to be at MCO… for real who does such thing to their own pets?” Another user commented, “If she did that to her dog could easily do that to a kid or another person, that cannot be normal, is cruel and evil. Life in jail.”
“she should endure the same,” a third user said. “$5000 bail? It should have been much more than that,” a fourth user commented.
The dog was identified through its implanted microchip. US Customs and Border Protection also confirmed to detectives that the woman had boarded a flight to Bogota, Colombia, before continuing to Ecuador.
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