Lawsuit: Delta's sweltering cargo hold led to pet deaths A Utah woman who is suing "pets first" Delta Air Lines for $4 million says three of her 11 dogs died after being penned in a plane's storage area in temperatures of up to 120 degrees. 'I felt they'd be treated like gold.' Barbara Burgett Barbara Burgett, a former vet tech, said she paid $250 apiece in 2008 to fly Hector, a 6-year-old French bulldog, and ten 4-month-old puppies from Hungary to Salt Lake City with a layover at JFK Airport. "I had never shipped dogs from out of country before," she said. [Delta claims to treat pets] as precious cargo. I felt they'd be treated like gold. The dogs, which she says she purchased for $20,000, made it OK to JFK, but when their flight arrived in Utah the next day, Hector was dead and the pups were in grave condition, and two later died, according to the suit filed last month.