Nurse Cops Plea In Dog Abandonment

JUNE 25--A Pennsylvania nurse has pleaded guilty to leaving her dog at an airport after she was unable to take the canine with her on a flight to a Mexican vacation resort, records show.

In a deal with prosecutors, Allison Lyn Gaiser, 46, yesterday copped to abandoning her French Bulldog at Pittsburgh International Airport. In return for that guilty plea, more serious animal cruelty and neglect charges were dropped.

A Court of Common Pleas judge fined Gaiser $150 and ordered her to pay about $350 in court costs. The charge to which Gaiser, a licensed registered nurse, pleaded guilty does not carry jail time.

Gaiser, seen above with the dog, was arrested in August 2023 after she left the canine unattended next to a short-term parking lot. A cop discovered the dog--who was seven at the time--sitting unrestrained in a green stroller.

The pooch was in good health and subsequently placed in foster care (the animal’s current custody status is unknown).

A police probe determined that Gaiser sought to bring the dog on her flight to Mexico, but was told by an airline representative that she could not travel with the animal since it “did not meet the criteria for an emotional support animal and did not have a proper kennel as required.”

Upon returning to Pittsburgh following her six-day Mexican vacation, Gaiser was questioned at the airport by cops and “freely admitted she left the dog behind because the airline denied the dog boarding.”

She also showed investigators a text message in which she asked her mother to “call the airport and tell them to take the dog to the local pound and she would get him when she gets back.”

In response, Gaiser’s mother warned that, “You will be arrested for dog abandonment,” adding, “You are not above the law.”

Gaiser, a divorced mother of two, lives in Ford City, a borough about 40 miles from Pittsburgh. Her Facebook profile lists her as a “Certified Health Coach” and “Certified Life Coach.” (2 pages)