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United Airlines is facing a backlash on Twitter over its handling of a complaint about a dog that a passenger claims was left on an airport apron for half an hour in the pouring rain.

Passenger Barbara Galletly tweeted a photo of the pet dog – snapped through a plane window covered with raindrops – as it sat in a crate on the rain-soaked tarmac in Houston, Texas.

The photo sparked outrage among those who were unhappy that that the dog had been left outside in the cold and many weren't satisfied with the airline's reply to her tweet.

Passenger Barbara Galletly's photo of the dog sparked a backlash against United Airlines on Twitter

Australian pop singer Sia was one of the Twitter users who sent angry messages to United Airlines

In her tweet Ms Galletly wrote: 'Evil United Airlines leaves dog on rainy cold runway for more than half an hour despite alerts to staff.' 

A United Airlines employee responded, tweeting: 'Thanks for telling us. The weather can change & may have been clear when PetSafe dropped off. They're the ones to call too.'

PetSafe is the airline's 'specially-designed programme' for transporting animals that are not eligible to travel in the aircraft cabin.

United Airlines was bombarded with angry messages after posting this response on Twitter

Australian pop singer Sia is vowing never to fly with United Airlines again due to the incident

A United Airlines spokesman told MailOnline Travel that the 'angle of the photo on Twitter doesn't adequately tell what happened'.

He said: 'We checked several cameras and confirmed that our ramp employees in Houston never left the pet unattended after our PetSafe employees dropped the kennel off when we were ready to begin loading the aircraft for departure.

'As is our standard practice, our employees placed the pet kennel completely under the wing to protect the pet from the falling rain and onto the aircraft after completing the baggage loading.'

As for the length of time the dog was on the tarmac, the spokesman said 'it could have been about half an hour', adding that the temperature was about 10C at the time.

Animals are loaded onto aircraft last so they can be unloaded first thing when the plane lands, he added.

Another unhappy user, Katie, said she would avoid flying with the Chicago-based airline in the future

The photo has been retweeted more than 1,000 times and the Chicago-based airline has been bombarded with messages from Twitter users who are vowing never to fly with them again.

One of them was 'Chandelier' singer Sia, who wrote: 'I will never fly @United again. Thanks @theregoesbabs for exposing their sh**** treatment of our beloved pets.'

Another user, Katie, added: 'This is an intentional act that screams negligence. I have always flown United but will now do all I can to avoid your airline.'

In a direct response to United Airlines' tweet, a user named Gerry Dee wrote: 'No, once you were alerted to it, it's all on you from there.'

Several Twitter users described it as a public relation disaster for United Airlines

Jason Vendel added: 'No excuse. They are your contractor. Plus, she said staff was alerted. Just apologize and hope that dog is ok.'

Other users said it was a public relations disaster for the company.

BK Chambers wrote: 'Don't understand how an airline in 2014 doesn't know when a social media issue is about to break.'

A user name Karah added: 'Award for worst use of Twitter today goes to United about concerns for a dog left on the tarmac in the rain.'