Hi,
It's pretty much going to be either the DOT, as the carriers primary regulatory agency, or the airline itself. You could also use Small Claims court-- but naturally you'd want to be sure of and know where you "stood" in terms of legal merit to your case before moving forward... and know the venue (county) where you can file.
The DOT generally does NOT get in "the middle of" individual complaints unless there appears to be some violation of a DOT rule or regulation, but this is not always mandatory- they do have the right to "advocate" in any case(s) they wish, but generally do so sparingly..... They do however 'roll-up' the individual complaints and publish that data in a monthly score card and use the data to give their rule making activates some added direction.
The only other agency that might be of interest to you is the US Department of Agriculture (yes, agriculture) as they are the Federal agency with primary regulatory authority over the interstate shipment of live animals-- and the agency who 'writes' most of the rules for the carriage of pets on commercial air services.
Best of luck.
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