Now, this is no s**t (i.e. it's time for an urban legend)...
Years ago Eastern Airlines had a dog in the cargo bay of a 727 that was found expired on arrival by the baggage handlers in MIA. The FE was queried and said yes, he perhaps forgot to turn on the cargo heat switch with a live animal in the hold. The dog's owner was an elderly lady and the customer service agents didn't want to break the sad news while she was waiting on the ramp to watch her dog come off the plane. They told her that her dog did not make it on the flight and would come on the next one. She said the people at LGA had assured her that the dog had been put onboard her flight.
Distraught and enraged, she grabbed a tool from a mechanic's cart and started banging on the the nose gear of the plane. Sensing some bad press coming, the ground folks calmed her down and put her in the first class lounge to wait for the later flight.
A crew was frantically sent to the local pet stores to look for a matching mutt and returned with a reasonably similar but alive dog.
When the second flight arrived, the new dog was fed in the the stream of offloaded luggage and and "reunited" with the owner.
The lady immediately declared "That isn't my dog!" The Eastern reps tried to convince her that it really was her dog, she was just tired and upset.
She countered "That is not my dog. My dog was dead, I was bringing him home to bury him!"