United to issue special pet carrier tags after dog's death

United has announced it will issue special bag tags for animal carriers and prosecutors have launched an investigation to determine if criminal charges are warranted following the death of a French bulldog puppy that was forced into an overhead bin on a United flight. The airline said a flight attendant who ordered the passenger to put her pet carrier in the overhead bin aboard a Houston-to-New York flight Monday didn't know there was a dog inside. "To prevent this from happening again, by April we will issue bright colored bag tags to customers traveling with in-cabin pets," United said. The family that owned the dog and other passengers contradicted the airline's account, saying the dog's barks were audible from inside the bin. Eleven-year-old Sophia Ceballos said that her mother told the flight attendant "'It's a dog, it's a dog,' and (the flight attendant) said we have to put it up there," in the bin. Other passengers backed up the family's account. Late Wednesday, the Harris County, Texas, district attorney's office said its animal cruelty division is working with the county's animal cruelty task force on a criminal investigation about what happened on the plane.<br/>