long distance transports

[forterriers]

I am working with a very rural shelter in Abbeville, Louisiana and we are trying to get dogs moved up north to fosters or shelters that will take them.
Erie SPCA is willing to take some puppies, 2 litters, weaned already.
Is it likely to be a possibility of me organizing this long haul (Abbeville, La to Erie, NY)? For the pups it is so much better to fly than endure the long distance ground transport necessary to save them.
Ingrid
Rat terrier rescue Canada
Loyal Rescue

[Jon]

Ingrid, This is free advice, worth every cent you are paying for it.

It sounds like this could be a routine transport. If it is recognize this is not going to be a one day flight. While that is not ideal I think because if this is going to be a routine transport you can make this happen with some effort on your part and some pilots along the route.

First you need to clarify if you are talking about Erie, PA or Erie County, NY.

Then you need to use the map feature on this site to locate pilots along the route, and ask them via email or PM personally if they would be willing to participate. Outline the typical number and size and weight of the animals transported. Different planes have different capacities so if you are thinking of moving 10 pups a month and they are all meduim size and don't socialize you need pilots with big planes. If you are talking about 10 10 pound pups that socialize and that fit in 3 or 4 smaller crates you expand the number of pilots and planes that can help.

Once you have some positive responses from pilots find their range or how far they want to go on a typical transport. Then find a foster that can overnight the animals, or even keep them a week if the pilots need weekends to fly and start setting up the transport. A few things to keep in mind. Coordinating a long transport is difficult because you have to blend schedules, are affected by weather, and can have issues beyond the pilot's control affect the schedule such as Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs).

If you can get through the first transport after that things get easier. Not easy, but easier. I'm not promising, but if you can get the animals to a foster in Knoxville I can get the animals from Knoxville TN to Erie PA or Jamestown NY. If the transports are routine I would block out time for them.

If someone like me could commit to this on a regular basis you will find transports can come together like clockwork. But you need to be flexible, you need a foster for the animals at intermediate stops to allow flexibility in scheduling and you need to builld a relationship with the pilots involved so everybody is comfortable that all the elements are in place and that no pilot is going to get stuck with a load of animals because the next is pilot incapable of doing his leg due to weather or mechanical issues.

There is a lot more to this, but as teams of pilots and rescues and fosters work together these transports do work smoothly and with few problems.

[forterriers]

Thank you for the information. I am somewhat overwhelmed by all this as the thought of flying rescue dogs is new to me. I just need to familiarize myself with how it all works. I have worked in rescue for years now but recently have come in contact with a very rural parish in La that is just drowning in very adoptable dogs with no outlet for them at all.
I have worked ground transport from there right through to Ontario before but it is also a statistical challenge sometimes.
It takes a lot of networking, overnighting etc to cover this amount of miles.
There are currently two litter of pups there;2 chi pups and a litter of 5 dachshund X pups that Erie SPCA in Buffalo would be willing to take and adopt out. This got me thinking if there was an easier way for these guys to travel.
Let me see if I can find any contact to work with in Knoxville. That is half the distance for the pups by car and would be so much less stressful on them.
Any and all help is tremendously welcome.
Ingrid

[Jon]

Ingrid,

I think if all pilots and rescues looked at transports from the long term perspective and participated as team members on regular routes delievering between sending and receiving rescues all transports would be easier, and require very little in the form of communications to set things up.

If the sending rescue and Erie County receiving rescue can agree to do this regularly you should approach this with an eye towards getting intermediate fosters set up at various waypoints. Once that is done you can treat a transport as several individual transports or one long one with several waypoints and stopovers. That is going to work for you whether you use ground or aviation transport.

You can PM me if you want to get more advice on the aviation side of this.