Questionable long-range transports?

[roslewski]

Similar to the thread from a couple of years ago on "worthwhile" transports, but not quite the same.

I love flying PnP missions, and try to help on any that come near me, so don't get the wrong idea. My wife and I have even fostered animals in the past too (can't right now). But often, I get auto-e-mailed requests that make me say, huh?

Not sure how to word this without sounding like a complete turd, but here goes:

A recent typical example (although there are many others, this one just came in today), is "2 cats from SLC, UT to CT", and the text states that they are going from a rescue to a forever home. My first thought is, "what, nobody in SLC wants a couple of cats?" But then I remember from MY foster work how much work it must take to find a home 2000 miles away, and so my second thought is "there must be a good reason or they wouldn't bother".

But I'll be darned if I can't come up with a "good reason" that a rescue would look that far away for an adopter. I suppose it could be "hey, my aunt Barb in CT wants some more cats", but that still seems like a lot of effort unless these are some kind of rare or special cats. Alternately, aren't there any cats in CT for Aunt Barb to adopt?

I don't mean to make it sound like I think that finding homes for any dogs or cats is easy - I know it's not, having done that myself. Supply often well exceeds demand. And you start talking about St Bernard rescues, yes I can see it taking a nationwide search to adopt them out. Of course if it's from a shut-down puppy mill, that's one thing, but most of the "questionable" ones I see don't seem to be anything like that.

Can anybody help me understand? I hope it doesn't seem like I'm trying to bash anyone, I just don't understand the reasons rescues choose to deal with the logisitics of such long transports.

Thanks,
Russ

[Puresass101]

As a new rescue group, I say thank you for this question. I have been doing my rescue for three months now in a very rural area, Hyde County, NC. We as rescue groups try to find fosters or forevers before its too late for the animal. I myself can tell you, its nerve racking, trying to figure out where the legs need to be for a long range flight. We have just had our first PNP flight from Raleigh, NC to Pittsburg, PA. Much thanks to Herb Fuchs for donating his time and plane to help 6 yellow Lab babies! It would be great if more pilots would do more long range flights! I am in need of a long range right now for a momma Lab and her 8 babies from Washington, NC to Rhode Island. I have hooked up a NJ to RI but now have to try to coordinate the rest of the range... I have saved 49 dogs in three months time, alone! A lot of work goes into every dog that gets rescued. Most of them have to go to more populated areas and have to go long range to other rescues that can help. We are all in this for the same reason, for the love of animals! Thank you to every Pilot who donates their plane and their time to help fight our quest, 4 paws at a time!

[Ladyflier]

Well Russ, guess it's like online dating. You see a face that you can't resist. So, must be true for animals too. Lots of people scan petfinder and other websites.

Last year some folks attending a convention in Reno had a dog run out in front of them and they hit it. After returning to NJ, they felt if no one came forward to claim the injured dog...they would adopt it. After two long months and no adopters locally, the shelter in Reno agreed to let them have the dog......happy ending. I picked him up and shipped him from SFO to Newark. He resides on a 10 acre ranch.....doesn't get much better than that!

[Eric27]

I've had the same question about some of these long legs and I thought they just didn't understand the limits of our planes. It's funny some of these animals have more flying miles than I have. It's good to be able to have open conversation like this.

[Ladyflier]

If it is a small dog, I do long range transports by commercial air. They ride whereever I ride...sometimes "first class".