The owner involved in the most recent airline dog death in the U.S. accused Delta Air Lines of trying to cover up his beloved pet’s death on Sunday, June 3 and said the airline appeared to have washed evidence related to the case.

Michael Dellegrazie said his Pomeranian, Alejandro, died on a flight from Phoenix to Newark, New Jersey, where he and his girlfriend are relocating, while traveling in a kennel stored in the jet’s cargo area.

“I got the phone call from my girlfriend … and then she gave me the number to call Delta,” Dellegrazie said in an interview with ABC News’ “Good Morning America.”

“I wanted to get to the bottom of this — figure this out. We had a dead family member. A dog, but a family member,” he added.

Dellegrazie said he was filled with “very strong feelings of pain, anger and disgust” at the moment he received his dog, which intensified when he went through the pup’s personal belongings and found them soaking wet.

“It was at that point that I stopped the retrieval of the items and called for a criminal investigation. The area was completely taped off, and some of the items were marked, and some of those are with the Detroit Police Department,” he said.

Delta told ABC News the dog may have been wet from the refrigeration of the dog’s body or from bodily fluids. Delta does not wash deceased dogs because doing so would jeopardize the accuracy of the necropsy, the airline said.

Nearly 507,000 animals were transported on U.S. airlines last year, and of those, 24 died, according to Department of Transportation figures.

In a statement to ABC News over the weekend, Delta said the airline is conducting an ongoing investigation.

Dellegrazie has hired a lawyer, and an investigation continues into Alejandro’s cause of death.