Several Saipan residents took to the streets to protest against United Airlines.

Boonie Babies, Saipan Humane Society, and the Boonie Flight Project organized a peaceful protest at the Saipan Airport calling on the airline to reopen pet-safe travel. 

Grace Keilbach with Boonie Babies said that the program ended in 2018 due to an incident on a flight.

“GAIN, the shelter on Guam, reported that 40% of owner surrenders are due to the owner relocating off the island. 40%. That's absolutely insane and heartbreaking,” said Keilbach. 

“So I think that's a pretty good demonstration and really shows how much pet-safe travel is contributing to the stray dog population and the euthanasia rate across the islands, which is 98%. so 98% of dogs that enter a shelter…98% of those dogs are euthanized,” she added. 

Keilbach said that United already flies pets of military owners with special orders and they would like to see the same for the general population. 

She noted that boonie dogs are descended from the WW2 dogs brought to the Marianas originally by the U.S. military.