Following a police tip, an international cargo handling company has been cited for animal cruelty and neglect after allegedly leaving a shipment of dogs without food and water for three days.

Alliance Ground International was charged with overseeing the August 28 shipment of dogs from Amman, Jordan. But after a 13-hour flight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would not release the dogs to their new owners because there were problems with the animals’ vaccination paperwork. As a result, the dogs were left in an O’Hare warehouse for roughly three days.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the dogs were discovered after Chicago Police received a tip about the animals being left without care. When they arrived, they found a dead German shepherd along with the other dogs caged without food or water. Two of the dogs, a German shepherd and a Belgian Malinois, were released to Chicago Care and Control while the others were released to another agency.

Warren Jones, Vice-President of Alliance Ground International, denies all allegations, however, stating that the dogs were walked, fed, watered, cleaned, and moved to an air-conditioned portion of the warehouse. He also provided CBS 2 with receipts for emergency pet supplies that were purchased during the delay. “It’s challenging,” he said.

“We move animals every week. We’ve never had a loss of animal at our company in 30 years.”

Since the incident, another woman has come forward to share a similar event experienced at the O’Hare airport.

Staci Yates had paid thousands to purchase a one-year-old Black Labrador from a breeder in Russia. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, it took longer than expected for the dog to arrive to Alabama. Instead, the puppy was delayed at the O’Hare airport in, what Yates described as, horrific conditions.

According to Yates, the dog was being held in a kennel so small that it was barely able to move. “He was lying in his own feces,” she told CBS 2. “And [he] had obviously been in it for quite some time.”

Yates believes that the CDC should be held responsible for anything that happens to these dogs.

“They’re the ones that held everything up,” she said.

Since media outlets broke the news about the death of the German shepherd, animal activists have been speaking out.

Lady Free Thinker, an animal rights blog created by Nina Jackel, is hosting a petition that urges the Chicago Department of Aviation “to thoroughly investigate this needless suffering and impose all necessary policy changes to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again.”

The incident has also caught the attention of PETA, who are now calling for Alliance Ground International to be prosecuted criminally. They say this is the same company that also handles shipments from Volga-Dnepr Airlines, an airline that reportedly transports monkeys to the U.S. to be used in scientific experiments.

At this time, it is unclear whether the incident will result in any policy changes regarding the shipping of animals through O’Hare.

Learn more about the incidents in the video below.

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Sources: CBS2 Chicago, The Chicago Sun-Times, ABC7 Chicago, Lady Free Thinker, PETA.org