(Happened to our family in late 90s) Didn't abandoned my two wee dogs BUT after all the preparations, the multiple vaccinations required for both dogs. The multiple phone calls to the Airline to set all the passengers and pets who'd be travelling and the few items all prepackaged according to rules and regulations, everything was CONFIRMED...in plenty of time in advance.
The costs of the specific crates our doggies required plus tickets and confirmation letters taken with us on day of departure. Our wee bird, our oldest girl, a longhaired chihuahua and our youngest girl, a Pomeranian which belonged to our Munchkins, were accepted no problems on short flight from small city to main international airport.
However, when we got to international airport, that's when everything fell apart. Even though we had all the proofs from Airline, papers from vet, confirmation and all was paid for. The airline flatly refused...
We had to abandon our bird, it was taken by a worker who's husband had an aviary business. We had to pay extra transport tickets for our two doggies, booked on KLM for the next day. We said our goodbyes and it was the last time we saw them alive. According to their rules as discussed with airport manager, the airline was at fault but nothing could be done unless we could wait two weeks. The latter wasn't possible!
So, we faced extra expenses that we hadn't planned for and a long haul flight with all of us crying our eyes out, missing our pets.
Once arrived at destination, things didn't get any better with airline. We had secured our cargo, declared in forms every items in each boxes. Wasn't good enough... Everything was broken into, lots disappeared. It was chaos.
We never saw the wee birdie, never found the person to contact. Our two doggie girls were in quarantine only two weeks. Due to the extra vaccinations, two healthy dogs of 4 and 3 years old died of over vaccinations for rabies. We were told by a clerk at the quarantine privately as the owners still expected us to pay the £600+ monthly fees for the entire 6 months.
The clerk thankfully just quit and found another job with a good vet in town. Nevertheless, we lost our precious pooches. It took two years to resolve the fiasco, but there isn't a day when we remember what happened.
I still hear from time to time that even though the quarantine system has improved of poor wee pets who lose their lives or their owners. Sorry, to post this here. Just needed to get it off chest.
Maybe the person in question had no choice. As sometimes the best plans go completely pearshape...