Mr Urasov then walked the animal outside the terminal at Russia’s Yekaterinburg airport, and left the small pet shivering inside a dog carry bag in temperatures as cold as minus 30C.
Three days later Tori was found dead.
The couple were flying to Hamburg to see their children who were staying with their grandmother.
It took them three days to report the dog as being abandoned and animal protection volunteers went to look for Tori.
Mrs Urusov admitted calling them because her children were distraught over the fate of their pet.
“We are looking for our little dog, she is white with a flick of ginger,” she appealed to a website.
“Our children can’t stop crying, please can you help?
“We’re ready to pay a fine. We had to leave her at the airport… they didn’t take her on board at check-in when we were flying to Hamburg to see our children.”
Yet the dog – found frozen to death three days later – was left in a part of the airport where people rarely go.
Activists who rushed to the airport initially could not find it.
Dmitry Tyukhtin, spokesman for Koltsovo airport in Yekaterinburg, said he “could not believe a human could do that to a dog”.
He criticised the owners for not seeking help from the airport.
“If only we knew about the problem, at least the dog would be alive. The weather was so cold on those days. Tori was left in an area where there are usually no people.
“If she was to be left closer to or inside the terminal, the dog would have been rescued.”
The couple had been advised by the check-in clerk to leave the dog with a friend, or postpone their flights for a day to obtain the documents.
“After that, the man left the building with the dog on a leash, and came back without the dog,” said one local account.
“When the couple returned to the check-in, staff asked them if they managed to solve the problem with the dog. Alexander replied that they passed it to a friend.”
A petition demanding the couple are brought to justice has been signed by more than 7,000 locals.
The story has gone viral in Russia and furious comments call for them to be “punished” and “jailed” with their children taken away from them.
They are “such idiots to have left the animal when it is freezing,” said Viktoria Milovanova.
“I wish they could stayed outside themselves. Animals are not toys, they are living creatures, they feel pain, cold and fear just as people do.”
Olesya Khoroshilova wrote: “Such people are sick and dangerous not only for animals but the whole society”.
Tatiana Maslennikova said: “I wish somebody would take this woman – the dog owner – to an abandoned place and leave her in the freezing weather alone without a mobile, food and water. Let her feel what her dog felt.”
Another woman wrote: “They deserve to spend their life in jail. Someone should take the kids away from them. They are terrible parents.”
(The Sun UK - Jan 24, 2017)
