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6 dogs & 5 cats in need of help!

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:13 pm
by lonespiritpc
I have been helping do animal rescue for 8 years and have helped different rescues but find myself between groups and with six dogs fully vetted and two cats fully vetted with the another three cats getting vetted on the 8th of September. I would love to find these babies homes as well. With the economic times the way they are, all groups in my area are full. I am located midway the state of North Carolina right on I 95 in Selma. I can transport up to 100 miles. I also wish to help in other ways such as housing temporary during layovers, and I can transport helping in other way and times too. Thank you for any help or ideas.
Perry Champion

Re: 6 dogs & 5 cats in need of help!

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:42 pm
by arizonabsd
Hi Perry, it's nice to meet you.

PNP operates as a place for rescues and pilots to connect for the purpose of transporting animals to established fosters or adopters. As such, there isn't a mechanism here for offering animals available for adoption, altho occasionally a rescue or pilot has adopted one. If you find homes for the dogs and cats you wrote about, please post a request for transportation on the Ride Board: Animals Needing Transportation.

I wish you the best in finding them homes. Here is some information to help you post a request for transport once they're ready to go.

Pilots want to see both the departure city and state and the destination city and state in the subject line. This allows them to see at a glance whether or not they might be able to help.

Your dogs are facing an extremely long (and probably slow) trip. Most pilots can contribute around 300 nautical miles to a transport request, so you need to know the distance between your start city and destination, and then break that distance down into 300- to 350-mile legs to determine how many pilots the trip might require. It can take a couple weeks to put all the transport legs together for cross-country distances, but it can be done. It may also take up to two weeks ( or 4!) to complete the journey since many pilots are only available for weekend flying.

Most General Aviation pilots use public municipal/regional airports rather than the major commercial airports, where the fees are higher and the airspace not as friendly to small planes as the muni airports.

To plan your route, begin by determining what muni or regional airports serve your cities. One place you can look up airports in every state is http://skyvector.com/airport/search. Click in the right hand column (public airports) that corresponds to the state in which you want to search, and in the new window that opens, you'll be able to locate airports and their IDs. Airports are listed in city-alphabetical order.

Next, with the PnP Pilot Map as a reference for where pilots are located, use one of the aviation websites (airnav or skyvector) to preview the route and the mileage between airport legs. Aviation websites are better suited for this than a general purpose map that you can draw a straight line on because you're looking for exact airport-to-airport mileage. I can email you some jpg samples of airport search results and nav charts if you'd like.

Now that you have a prospective route and a list of pilots to contact, switch to the PnP Volunteer Map as a reference to arrange ground support (fosters, boarding kennel, etc.) at each of the handover points along that route in case of bad weather or other delays. Multi-leg transports generally require an overnight foster or two along the way since most pilots fly during the daytime. Rescues are also responsible for arranging the dog's delivery and pickup to and from all the airports. Don't automatically assume that blue skies and a mere 600-mile transport means ground support won't be necessary; prepare a plan that safeguards your dog all along the route so pilots can concentrate on flying and taking care of their planes during delays or emergencies.

When you have the above information, edit your post to include some or all of it.

In addition to posting requests, Rescues can directly contact pilots along the route via email addresses found in their profiles. But before you do: know your route, which airports are available, which prospective legs you're requesting help for, the maximum crate size you're likely to use, and the combined weight of crates and dogs. This will make a pilot's decision much easier. Stay flexible in your plans because the final routing decision is always up to the pilots, but give them as much of the required information as possible in your first contact.


Lynnette Bennett
North American Belgian Sheepdog Rescue
[email protected]