Owner demands answers after dog dies on Delta flight

Michael Dellegrazie is devastated after his beloved Pomeranian Alejandro died during a transfer on a Delta Airlines flight.

"The dog is not a pet, he's a family member," Dellegrazie said. "We are just lost without answers. What happened to our dog? We don't know."

Last month, the eight-year-old dog was shipped in the cargo hold aboard a flight from Phoenix, Arizona to Newark, New Jersey, but had a layover in Detroit, Michigan.

Dellegrazie was planning to pick up the dog in Newark, but in Detroit, a terrible discovery was made.

"At approximately 6 o' clock in the morning, Alejandro was checked on, he was fine," Evan Oshan, Dellegrazie's lawyer, said. "And then at approximately 8:30, 8 o'clock in the morning, the dog was again checked on. He was dead."

Alejandro's owners hired Evan Oshan, the same attorney who represented the family whose French bulldog Kokito died on a United Airlines flight in March after they were told by a flight attendant to put the dog in an overhead bin.

Oshan arrived at Detroit's airport Saturday night with Dellegrazie, demanding to see the Pomeranian.

He called for a criminal investigation after Alejandro's body was handed over in a garbage bag.

Delta said it has launched its own investigation telling ABC News that, "Delta is conducting a thorough review of the situation and have been working directly with Alejandro's family to support them however we can."

The owners say they're still waiting on a necropsy to find out exactly how their dog died. Experts said while incidents like this are devastating for families, they are rare.

Out of more than half a million animals transported on domestic flights last year, 24 died.