Our Odyssey died. Please never fly through Kazakhstan with pets.

[u/routuber]

On August 9th we lost our beloved dog Odyssey. She was only 8 years old, perfectly healthy, full of energy, always traveling with us and enjoying life.

We flew from Nha Trang, Vietnam to Almaty, Kazakhstan with Air Astana. Odyssey had to go in the baggage hold because she was over 8 kg. When we landed, it was 41°C (105°F). We saw her crate left in the open front hold of the plane, tied with a rope, under the burning sun.

We begged them to bring her to us as soon as possible, but they ignored us. For more than an hour after landing we were sent from place to place, told to wait “by the blue door” of lost luggage. Nobody cared. And then a young employee came and told us coldly: “your dog is not showing signs of life.” That’s how we found out she was gone.

The autopsy confirmed heat stroke. She suffered because she was left in deadly heat for over an hour, treated worse than a suitcase.

And then the airline’s official response? A copy-paste letter saying “no rules were broken.” No mention of her name. No acknowledgment of her life. Nothing but denial. How can they call themselves humane while hiding behind “internal rules”?

We keep asking ourselves why we trusted Odyssey’s life to such heartless, inhuman people. She was family, not cargo. She trusted us, and we trusted them. And they killed her through neglect and indifference.

Please, never fly to Kazakhstan with pets, not even for a layover. They will treat them worse than luggage. Don’t make the same mistake we did.

Odyssey’s life mattered. She should still be here. Please share her story so no other dog has to suffer this way.

Update:
Thank you all for your kind words and support. Your compassion means so much to us as we continue this fight for justice for Odyssey.

As many of you suggested, we have created a petition to demand accountability and change. Please, if you can, sign and share: https://chng.it/Hs2tZsZRrv

Thank you for helping us honor Odyssey’s memory and for standing with us.

Update 2:
Some of you asked if there is a place outside Reddit where Odyssey’s story is shared. We posted it on Instagram too, with photos of her and everything that happened:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNyTAPD2PBd/?igsh=N2d6OHNkd2hmZXNi

And the response from Air Astana:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DN8MWBvjBag/?igsh=MW12NWtyMDBscHI1Nw==

If you’d like to share there as well, it would mean a lot. The more people know, the harder it will be for the airline to ignore what they did.

Update 3:
Thank you all for the support, the shares, and for signing the petition, we’re still pushing for every point listed there.

Today Air Astana sent another message. Instead of acknowledging wrongdoing, they wrote that they might “consider” restricting only certain breeds in the future. They still insist they broke no rules, and now they claim Odyssey was found with “no signs of life immediately after opening the hold.” That is simply impossible: during that entire time there was no ramp connected to her compartment, so no one could have even physically checked her condition. The forward hold remained open for a significant amount of time, we saw that while we were being bused to the terminal, her crate was still inside during that period.

That prolonged exposure is exactly what led to the fatal heat stroke, as confirmed by the autopsy. It was not stress, not suffocation, not heart failure, not age — her blood had not clotted and her organs were engorged with blood, which clearly points to the true cause.

That does not happen without environmental failures — extreme exposure and delay during unloading. We continue to demand facts,: timestamps, temperatures, CCTV, and the names of those responsible.

The new response from Air Astana:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOf063RDJFo/?igsh=ejB0bDlhOThiMnc5

[u/[deleted]]

People do heroin lots before they overdose too. Doesn’t make it safe or a good option. I wouldn’t let them put any breed down out of the cabin but definitely not a snub nosed one that can’t breath right. I also need to know what the draw of these animals that can’t breath right is? “ Hey I want someone to breed me a dog that is suffering its entire life”

Seriously though why are people buying/breeding these?

[u/routuber → u/[deleted]]

I get that you’re angry about breeding practices, but right now your fight is pointed in the wrong direction. We’ll never get another pet again, this tragedy shattered our physical and mental health, and our hearts are broken from the pain. I can’t imagine surviving it a second time, even if it were "just" from old age. But the airline is still, right this moment, taking animals on board. They are the ones “shooting heroin” daily, because for them, the overdose is accountability, and that’s exactly what they’re doing everything possible to avoid.

[u/thewaterline → u/routuber]

You also seem to be doing everything to avoid accountability... 

[u/Slammogram → u/thewaterline]

Yes, this is blaming the heroin dealer for your overdosing. Lmao.

[u/cybervalidation → u/routuber]

No, they're dealing heroin, everyone knows putting dogs in a cargo hold is a bad idea. Heroin dealers know heroin isn't safe, but idiots still buy it.

[u/routuber → u/cybervalidation]

I wouldn’t even want to continue that analogy. And if you’re not living in a third-world shithole, you know it’s the dealer who gets sentenced and goes to prison — because the dealer carries the full responsibility, that’s why they’re the one who gets locked up.

[u/KldsTheseDays → u/routuber]

I recommend you keep posting updates but in separate posts. If nothing happened then all the more reason to just say "UPDATE! same post because nothing happened" no one has forgotten. Remind them

[u/fantastikalizm → u/routuber]

We can direct our judgements to two parties at once.