(WXYZ) — The Transportation Security Administration is responding after a viral video showing a worker aggressively handling a dog at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
The video, originally posted to Reddit by user ProfessionalEye3568, shows the handler taking the dog back and forth inside the terminal at DTW.
It garnered hundreds of replies on Reddit with many questioning the worker’s behavior.
According to TSA, the dog is an explosive detection canine at the airport, and it was shared with local leadership on Sunday morning.
We reached out to TSA, and a spokesperson called the behavior by the handler “unacceptable.”
The agency said that the employee has been removed from handling duties while an investigation happens.
The entire statement is below.
“Video showing a TSA explosive detection canine handler aggressively pulling a dog working in a Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) terminal was shared with local leadership this morning.
The behavior displayed by this handler is unacceptable and not within the high standards we hold our officers to.
TSA officials at DTW have removed the employee from handling duties pending completion of an investigation, and directed that the canine be taken immediately to a veterinarian for a wellness exam.”
A federal agent’s handling of an bomb-sniffing dog at Detroit Metro Airport is being investigated after a video of the what appears to be training went viral.
The video showed a member of the Transportation Security Administration aggressively pulling the animal as they walked through the McNamara Terminal.
The federal agency said it had shared the video with its local office in Detroit and that the worker wouldn’t be handling any dogs until the investigation was completed.
“The behavior displayed by this handler is unacceptable and not within the high standards we hold our officers to,” the agency said in a prepared statement.
The TSA said it also directed the local office to take the dog to a veterinarian for a wellness exam.
The video was shared widely on social media on Sunday after it was originally shown on Reddit.
ProfessionalEye3568, who posed the video on Reddit, said she owned a high-energy dog so she originally assumed the dog was being unruly. The more she watched the incident, however, the more she believed the handler was being unnecessarily rough.
“I was shocked at how this airport handler is dragging this poor pup around,” she wrote. “There’s no reason anyone should be flipping a working dog around by its harness like this.”
