A vacationing woman tried to fly with her dog and said it was her emotional-support animal. When airline staff stopped her, she abandoned the pet at an airport parking lot.

• Police in Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, say a female passenger abandoned her dog at the airport.
• She pretended that her French Bulldog was an emotional-support animal, a police official said.

A female passenger who tried to fly to a resort with her French Bulldog abandoned the animal in a parking lot after staff refused to let the pet on board, the local police department said.

The Allegheny County Police Department wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the dog was "found unattended in a stroller" by officers who responded to an incident at Pittsburgh International Airport on Friday at 5:30 a.m.

Airline staff told the passenger that she needed to put her dog in a crate to bring it onto the plane, but the woman later left the dog "near short-term parking and proceeded to board a flight," police said.

A microchip was found on the dog, but the owner couldn't be contacted, the department added.

Sgt. Jason Donaldson told the local ABC affiliate WTAE-TV that the woman was flying to a resort and that she pretended her dog was an emotional-support animal. The airline officials, however, were not convinced, Donaldson said.

Donaldson told WTAE-TV that the 7-year-old dog was in good health and being cared for by a local animal shelter.

The police didn't say where the woman was flying or which flight she had booked.

The state dog warden is expected to file charges against the dog's owner. It's illegal under Pennsylvania law to abandon a dog, and convicted owners can face fines of up to $1,000.

The Allegheny County Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.