‘Our poor Charlie.’ Love Island’s Tayla Broad’s harrowing experience flying with her dog.

Tayla and Nathan Broad's attempt to fly their french bulldog Charlie from Melbourne to Perth turned into every pet owner's nightmare. 

The former Love Island winner shared her traumatic experience with her Instagram followers which began on Monday morning. 

"Our poor Charlie was meant to embark on a flight early this morning," Tayla wrote in an Instagram Story. "Instead, he has been left at the airport in a crate for over nine hours without food."

The model and podcaster went on to say that the airline transferring Charlie, Qantas, had not notified the couple that their dog didn't get on his scheduled flight. This meant Tayla's brother had waited at Perth airport for several hours to pick up the confused pup.

"No one is able to tell us where Charlies is. Just that he didn't get put on his morning flight. We are unsure if he is currently in the air or still stuck inside a crate at the airport. Every person we speak to gives us a different answer as to where they 'think' he is!" the reality star said.

Tayla referred to Qantas' handling of the situation as "disgusting", even going as far as making allegations of "animal abuse". 

Image: Instagram/@tayla.broad.

Tayla's husband and Richmond AFL player, Nathan, also echoed Tayla's sentiment on Instagram. 

"We only found out [Charlie didn't get on the flight] because he never rocked up on the flight he was due to be on," he stated.

"Total of 14 hours in a crate without food and in the heat. Their excuse: 'our system was down'. You belong in a crate you useless airline!"

Image: Instagram/@nathanbroad. 

Luckily, Charlie was recovered after a few harrowing hours. 

"The amazing team at Departure Pets have found him [Charlie] and taken him back to their depo to give him water food and care," Tayla shared. 

"Qantas thought it was OK to attempt to put him on a later flight tonight at 5pm which would mean he was in a crate with no care for over 14 hours. In what world is that OK?"

Soon after, Tayla picked up Charlie from the airport and returned him home. "Home safe! This is breaking our hearts though. He [Charlie] is so rattled. Couldn't get up our stairs due to exhaustion, so dehydrated, drooling and out of sorts," she described. 

"Qantas you have a lot of explaining to do!!"

Image: Instagram/@tayla.broad.

Qantas have since released a statement. 

"Unfortunately the pet was unable to travel on its scheduled flight and was put onto the following available flight later in the day," a spokesperson said.

"Our team regularly checked the pet was OK, refilled their water and made sure the crate was clean. The crate was kept under cover in our freight terminal while waiting.

"We know how important it is for people to know their pets are well cared for when they're travelling with us.

"We're sorry for the delay and we're working with our pet travel agents to make sure we can get them where they need to go as soon as possible."

Charlie has settled back home, with Tayla giving another update on Wednesday. 

Image: Instagram/@tayla.broad.

Tayla and Nathan met through mutual friends in Perth, confirming their relationship in 2020, getting married in 2022, before welcoming their first daughter together in August 2023. 

Feature image: Instagram/@tayla.broad.