In sad news, 38 French Bulldog puppies have been found dead in a cargo of a plane flying from Ukraine to Canada, with dozens more arriving dehydrated and seriously ill.
Canadian authorities have launched an investigation to find out what happened to the dogs and why.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed that roughly 500 Frenchie puppies were on board a Ukranian International Airlines flight arriving at Toronto's Pearson International Airport from Kyiv on Saturday.
"Upon inspection, it was found that 38 were dead on arrival," a CFIA spokesperson said in a statement.
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"CFIA officials are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding this incident and will determine next steps once the investigation is complete."
The CFIA said the surviving animals were suffering with severe dehydration, weakness and vomiting.
Abby Lorenzen, a witness who was picking up another animal from the cargo area of the flight described the scene as a "horror show" to CBC News.
"It was just a nightmare," Lorenzen, who happens to be a professional dog handler, said. "Canada and the federal government need to change the laws on the importation of these puppies."
Eye witness footage circulating on social media shows dozens of created being loaded on to the cargo of the plane while in Kyiv, with some reports suggesting it was 33C at the time.
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While Ukranian International Airlines did not comment on why they allowed so many animals on one flight, they wrote on social media: "Everyone at UIA offers its condolences for the tragic loss of animal life on our flight.
"UIA is working with local authorities to determine what happened and to make any changes necessary to prevent such a situation from occurring again."
Prof. Scott Weese of the University of Guelph, who works with Public Health Agency of Canada, told CBC he suspects there is an "organised crime component" with puppy mills importing the dogs and selling to Canadian owners.
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"It is a big industry. There's no doubt about it. And it's been looked at more in the U.S. and there's potentially some organised crime component of it, too, in some areas," he said.
"There are lucrative situations where you can buy large numbers of dogs fairly cheaply. You mentioned 500 French bull dogs. If those are going for sale at $3,000 to $4,000 a dog, that's a massive amount of money."
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