{"id":120474,"date":"2017-04-26T14:45:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T19:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=120474"},"modified":"2017-04-27T08:38:39","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T13:38:39","slug":"giant-rabbit-dies-united-airlines-flight-to-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=120474","title":{"rendered":"Giant rabbit dies, United Airlines flight to Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"LONDON (AP) \u2014 United Airlines is investigating a report that a giant rabbit died on one of its trans-Atlantic flights.<\/span><\/p>\n

Distraught breeder Annette Edwards from Worcestershire in central England told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday that Simon, a 10-month-old, 3-foot-long continental rabbit, had a vet check shortly before traveling from London’s Heathrow airport to Chicago’s O’Hare airport. She said Simon had been purchased by a celebrity whom she did not identify.<\/span><\/p>\n

She says, “Simon had his vet check just before getting on the plane. He was fit as a fiddle.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The airline said in a statement that it was “saddened” by the news and had been in contact with Edwards and offered assistance. The company is dealing with public relations issues after a passenger who would not give up his seat was dragged forcibly from a plane in Chicago three weeks ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

United Airlines spokesman Charles Hobart says the airline is reviewing its handling of a giant rabbit that died following a flight from London to Chicago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hobart says, the animal was alive and showed no signs of distress upon landing but died at a pet holding facility at the airport.<\/span><\/p>\n

He adds, “We won’t know the cause of death because we offered to perform a necropsy free of charge \u2014 that’s standard procedure \u2014 but the customer didn’t want us to perform a necropsy, and we understand.”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hobart said the airline offered compensation to the breeder but would not disclose the amount.<\/p>\n

Bryan Bergdale of West Des Moines had driven last Thursday to Kansas City to pick up Simon, a 10-month-old, 3-foot continental rabbit, when he received a call from United Airlines. Bergdale says “we’d built a pen and had toys all ready.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Bergdale, who manages farmland investments, says the rabbit cost his boss 415 pounds ($530) and shipping was 1,400 pounds ($1,800). He says he had a 5-foot-by-8-foot pen built in a farm garage in Norwalk and had planned for air conditioning to be piped in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bergdale said the United Airlines representative who called was “very nice” but didn’t say anything about compensating him. He says “we’re not quite sure what we’re going to do.”<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 United Airlines is investigating a report that a giant rabbit died on one of its trans-Atlantic flights. Distraught breeder Annette Edwards from Worcestershire in central England told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday that Simon, a 10-month-old, 3-foot-long continental rabbit, had a vet check shortly before traveling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":120475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120474"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120520,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120474\/revisions\/120520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}