Travel

Travel

If you are like me, you recognize that adopting an animal saves a life! Here in Puerto Rico, there is a serious over population problem. As such, many animals are adopted to the continental US.

Rescue groups cultivate relationships with no-kill shelters in the States and also do direct adoptions to loving forever families.

Whilst browsing online or while here for a visit, if you find a sweet dog or cat who melts your heart and you would like to adopt, this post will shed light upon what is involved.

Most rescue groups  function on donations and via a volunteer workforce and generally an adoption fee or donation is requested.

In order for an animal to be ready for adoption they must be healthy. Often times this means, a full set of vaccines + Rabies, de-worming, spay-neuter, and curing other skin aliments or injuries. Once the animal is set to go, they will require a travel health certificate. This is procured via the vets office and is good for ten days from the date of travel.

Flight reservations are made next. The three options for travel are: carry-on (if the animal is small enough), checked baggage (if there is an “escort”-ticketed passenger-on the flight), or cargo (more expensive, but with a PetSafe program and no temperature restrictions dictating when animals can fly).

The dog or cat also requires a crate or soft-sided carrier (carry-on only) to travel in.

Arrangements are made for transportation at both ends and the pet gets ready for their trip!

As a re-cap, associated costs may look as such:

  • spay-neuter + vaccines $200
  • travel documents $25-40
  • flight $150 (carry-on)-$400 (cargo)
  • crate-carrier $40-150 (small soft bag carry on-largest size crate)
  • fee to “pet travel agent” for all of their hard work, information, and logistics coordination $100+

However, the life that you save is priceless. And, as the saying goes, “You may not change the world by rescuing that one dog or cat, but you will change the world for that dog or cat.”