Supermodel blames airline in dog’s death

Supermodel Maggie Rizer is blaming United Airlines for the death of her golden retriever, Bea.

The two-year-old dog died while in the cargo hold of a United fight from New York City to San Francisco.

According to a necropsy by her veterinarian, heat stroke was the cause.

Rizer said both Bea and her other dog, Albert, had been cleared by a veterinarian just four days before she flew home about two weeks ago to California after vacationing on the East Coast.

When Rizer and her husband, businessman Alex Mehran, landed in San Francisco, United workers told them Bea had died. One of them, she says, told her, ”This happens a lot.”

“I was completely hysterical, I’m surprised I didn’t get arrested,” Rizer told the New York Daily News.

Rizer also claims that workers lied to her, saying Bea had been taken for a necropsy when she was actually still in the cargo area.

Bea’s body was given to the family later that day, and an autopsy by a family vet showed she had died of heat stroke, said Rizer, a covergirl who modeled for Louis Vuitton, Versace, and Calvin Klein.

A United spokesperson said the airline has transported more than 550,000 pets, with less than .1% of those resulting in deaths.

“That said, I just want to make it clear this isn’t something we’re not sympathetic to, certainly when it does happen it’s devastating,” spokesperson Mary Ryan said.

United is reviewing the incident, and has returned the $1,800 Rizer paid to transport her dog.

(Photo: Maggie Rizer and Bea, via Twitter)

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