Pets

Kokito, the French bulldog placed in the overhead bin of a United Airlines flight, died of suffocation ... TMZ has learned.

According to results of Kokito's necropsy, conducted at Cornell University, the 9-month-old puppy was the victim of the decreased oxygen levels in the overhead compartment. Stress combined with the animal's narrow airway -- which is common in the breed -- were also factors.

You'll recall Kokito's owner had the 20-pound dog in a carrier at her feet, but a flight attendant on the flight from Houston to NYC insisted the carrier be place in the overhead bin. Witnesses said Kokito was barking for a long time.

Prosecutors in NY and Texas are looking into the dog's death as a possible criminal matter, which is why the experts at Cornell were called on to conduct the necropsy.

United just announced it will resume allowing certain dog breeds in the cabin during flights. It had suspended that while flight crews went through mandatory "compassion training."

Instagram model Deyana Mounira says she's the victim of a dog s*** lawsuit because she did nothing sexual to Hef, the dog, and claims this video proves Hef's owner actually sexually harassed HER.

TMZ broke the story ... Deyana was sued by Tony Toutouni, who owns the Russian royal terrier and claimed she sexually aroused his pooch by playing with the dog's genitals. The video posted on social media, by Deyana and Tony, had music over it -- but she's given us the clip with just the natural sound, and it's very revealing.

Deyana claims the man you hear saying things like, "just move your ass and let him just sniff it," and "f*** her" ... is actually Tony. She claims there was no professional photographer -- as Tony claimed in his lawsuit -- and he was the only one taking pics.

She claims Tony harassed her verbally and sexually during the shoot -- and also groped her while trying to get her into his room.

As for why she posted the video -- Deyana says she tried to make a joke out of it first, because she feared Tony would post it somewhere else before her.

She says, "I want the entertainment industry and the public in general to be aware of people like Tony who want to use you in every way they can including, but not limited to, sexual and inappropriate acts."

Tony's attorneys at Pirnia Law Group tell us, "No matter what took place in the photo shoot between Ms. Mounira and HEF, and no matter who instigated what exactly, the main takeaway is that upon leaving the shoot Ms. Mounira was explicitly told NOT to post any videos of HEF as it reflects poorly on my client who is a public figure."

They added, "If she was bothered by the actions of HEF or my client, why was she smiling and laughing in the video? Why did she stay at the shoot for hours after it was over?"

Singer-songwriter Eric Bellinger just outdid everyone who dresses their kid in designer duds by dressing up his pet goats in Gucci ... horn-to-toe!

Eric, who's written hits for Usher, Justin Bieber and Chris Brown, was on his way to the Gucci store Thursday when we spotted him on Rodeo Drive. He told us he was taking his pets because Gucci staffers didn't believe he had 2 goats that needed t-shirt fittings -- $1800 worth at that!

Gucci tees start around $480, which means even his goats won't wear entry level Gucci. Eric topped off the outfits with multi-colored tape on their horns to match the tees, of course.

It gets even more unbelievable when Bellinger, a yoga enthusiast, starts talking about WHY he has a pair of goats in the first place. Dude's clearly an animal lover.

Hef was sexually assaulted during a photo shoot with a hot bikini model, TMZ has learned ... and we should say ... Hef is a dog.

The model's name is Deyana Mounira, and 2 weeks ago she showed up for a photo shoot at the home of a guy named Tony Toutouni ... who says he's "Instagram famous." Dude does have 1.5 million followers. Anyway, during the photo shoot ... Tony says Deyana started playing around with his dog, Hef.

According to the lawsuit, Tony's filed against Deyana ... Hef stands about 5' when on his hind legs, while Deyana goes about 5'6". As Tony puts it, Deyana "began sensually playing with Hef; arousing Hef by playing with his genitals and masturbating him."

Tony says Hef was totally into it, and started mounting and thrusting and "even appeared to place his front legs on [her] buttocks."

In the suit, filed by attorney Ardy Pirnia, Tony says he told Deyana and the photog he did NOT want the footage on the Internet ... and they agreed. However, the video and photos showed up on her IG a couple days later.

Gotta say, the video's pretty damning, although it's hard to tell who's the aggressor. Tony later posted the video himself, but added the caption, "I can't believe this Thirsty girl used my dog to gain followers."

Tony is suing Deyana for fraud and infliction of emotional distress (on Tony, not Hef). Good luck proving it, but he wants her to fork over $1.5 million in damages.

As for Hef ... based on a pic posted this week, seems like he's recovered. Bow wow wow.

Gina Rodriguez just added another pooch to her dog family ... an adorable 9-week-old Havanese that cost $2.5k.

The "Jane the Virgin" actress pulled the trigger Sunday at Citipups Chelsea in New York City. We're told she came in several times last week to spend time with the dog, and then finally brought her other pooch, Casper, in over the weekend to make sure the two got along, which was a success.

Gina had another dog, Ted, that passed away about 2 years ago, so looks like she's trying to get Casper another pal while she pulls long hours on the "Jane the Virgin" set.

The Havanese pup was neutered Monday, so Gina will be able to take him home this week once the pupper has recovered.

"This is Us" star Justin Hartley's reeling from the loss of his dog ... but it's his second pooch he's even more concerned about.

We got Justin out in Studio City on Thursday and our guy offered his condolences after the passing of Memphis ... the 11-year-old rescue Justin and his wife, Chrishell, adopted in December 2016. Chrishell said Memphis died earlier this week after his kidneys gave out.

Justin says it's been a tough few days but watch the vid to find out why he's also worried for his second rescue, Gracie. And for what it's worth ... he's also kinda concerned about our guy running into trees.

Paula Patton's dog has a taste for human blood ... so claims a man who says her dog viciously attacked him and he suspects the dog's done it before.

Alberto Matiz is suing Paula claiming her German Shepard, Bear, attacked him on December 31, 2017 at Paula's Calabasas home. In docs, obtained by TMZ, Alberto claims the dog knocked him out and began ripping the flesh out of his right arm.

Alberto goes on to claim he thinks the dog's attacked others before. He's suing for unspecified damages.

Paula wished her dog Happy National Puppy Day just a couple weeks ago. She also told Conan O'Brien back in 2017 her dog had a tendency to run outta the house but always returned.

Cesar Millan has way better home security than a stupid alarm system ... territorial dogs that thwarted a burglary.

Law enforcement sources tell us a prowler showed up at Cesar's home Thursday night, opened the door to his unlocked car parked in his driveway and stole an iPhone, sunglasses and a garage door opener.

Cesar wasn't home, but when his fiancée woke up Friday morning she noticed the garage door was open and items were missing from the car and police were called.

Surveillance footage shows the burglar used the remote to open the garage door -- presumably to gain access to the house -- and was met by several of Cesar's pooches who were none too pleased to see him. The dogs chased the perp away.

As for the stuff the guy took ... the loss comes to around $1,300. The burglar's still at large but cops have the edge with the video.

Zac Efron and Alexandra Daddario certainly look like a couple ... a couple of dog lovers taking their pups on an adventure to the neighborhood pet store.

The "Baywatch" movie co-stars hit up Tailwaggers in Los Feliz Wednesday afternoon, where Zac bought a dog crate for his gray Pitbull mix ... and Alexandra hooked up her beloved pooch, Levon, with some goodies, too.

The actors have been rumored to be dating since last summer's movie release ... but nothing's been confirmed. What is confirmed -- their doggies are adorable.

John Oliver has mastered the art of trolling, and with the help of a now best-selling gay rabbit ... he's making a laughingstock of Vice President Mike Pence's children's book.

Oliver's new children's book, "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo," is currently the No. 1 best selling book on Amazon. It's basically a satirical send-up of Pence's book, starring Bundo ... but, of course, the Veep's bunny is not out. It's also down at No. 4 on best sellers.

The "Last Week Tonight" host released his bunny tale on Sunday, a day before Pence's release -- to directly compete with the VP -- and, let's be honest, to troll the hell out of his conservative views on LGBT rights.

Oliver's got him beat in the overall category, and in Children's books, where both the hard cover and the Kindle version are dominating over Pence's version.

Yes, you could say John has pulled a rabbit out of his hat.

Matthew Morrison, the star of "Crazy Alien," is outraged and disgusted by the abuse of a dog on the film's set ... and says if he was there, he would've made every effort to stop it.

TMZ obtained a clip of a German Shepherd locked in a cage that was suspended high above the ground. The cage was then violently spun around and hurled into a freezing bed of water. We're told the scene was shot several times.

Morrison said of the incident, "I've just been made aware and seen a video from the set of a film I worked on in China. My heart is broken to see any animal treated this way. Had I been on set or known about this, I would have made all efforts to stop this. I've called the producers to express my outrage."

A spokesperson for PETA -- who provided the clip to TMZ -- tells us they want the film's cast and producers held accountable and are demanding the following:

--The scene be cut.

-- Director Hao Ning to commit to never working with live animals again.

-- The cast, including Morrison to donate their salaries to animal-protection charities in China.

-- The current condition of the dog used.

Stan Lee needed a real-life superhero to find and return his lost dog. Enter the immortal football legend, Jim Brown, who proved not all heroes wear capes.

Sources close to Stan tell TMZ ... the comic book legend's Mini Pomeranian, Charlotte, went missing last week, though it's unclear how she got loose. In any case, Stan's peeps canvassed the Hollywood Hills neighborhood where he lives and his business partner Keya Morgan posted "Lost Dog" flyers everywhere.

A few days passed, but the posters garnered zero leads ... leaving Stan resigned to the idea Charlotte was gone for good. But, not so fast.

We're told the NFL Hall of Famer and his wife, Monique -- who live about a mile away from Stan -- found Charlotte in their yard ... scared with no collar. The couple sprung into action ... first firing off an email to a bunch of their neighbors, but that fetched no clues.

The Browns were undeterred, and brought Charlotte to a vet, who found a microchip planted near her neck, but, again, no luck there either because the chip wasn't registered.

The Browns then went old school and canvassed several neighborhoods and BAM ... they saw the posters, called the number and just like that, Charlotte was reunited with Stan.

No word on whether Jim gets a reward!

A dog on a movie set was put in a cage, violently spun around and dropped into freezing cold waters ... and nothing about it was pretend.

Sources on the set of "Crazy Alien" tell us the scene, shot in China in November, featured a German Shepherd hoisted high above the ground in the cage. According to the script, the dog was captured by aliens.

You see in the clip -- provided by PETA -- the cage turns around with considerable ferocity before being hurled into a nearby river. We're told the scene was repeated multiple times until the director was satisfied.

Our sources onset say the dog was shaken up after the stunt, but did not appear to be injured.

Matthew Morrison, who starred in "Glee," is featured as the star ... we're told he was not onset when the scene was shot.

United Airlines is now under the microscope in a third state, as law enforcement in NY take a closer look at how that French bulldog died in an overhead compartment ... TMZ has learned.

A rep for the Queens District Attorney's Office tells us they're now looking into the matter and currently reviewing the facts to determine if there is a prosecutable case in their jurisdiction. The United flight where Kokito died ... took off from Houston and landed at LaGuardia Airport, in Queens County.

As we reported ... the Harris County, Texas D.A. has launched its own investigation, which is in the hands of a police animal cruelty task force.

The death of the dog that was placed in the overhead bin on a United Airlines flight has triggered a criminal investigation.

The Harris County, Texas D.A. has assigned the case to the animal cruelty division.

The D.A. did not disclose the target of the investigation. As we reported, the flight attendant who ordered the dog owner to place her pet carrier in the overhead says she was unaware there was a dog inside. The odd thing is ... the dog was barking loud enough for passengers to hear for a prolonged period of time before it died.

Tomi Lahren's probably better off reading from a teleprompter, because she now says the social media post about kicking her dog was a joke that just fell on deaf ears.

We got Tomi at LAX Wednesday and asked her point-blank ... did she actually kick her dog, Kota, 5 times because she was making too much noise during Tomi's appearance on "FOX & Friends"? Remember, it was Tomi's own video of herself berating her dog for loudly chewing a bone that got her in trouble, anyway.

Tomi denied abusing Kota, and said anyone with some logic would know she was joking.

She claims people are overreacting -- to HER SAYING she kicked her dog -- and did her best to prove she's a loving pet owner. Tomi tried to chalk this all up to a slow news day, but truth is the timing of her "joke" sucked.