Hi!
I saw an Associated Press article in our local northern Lake Co., IL.
newspaper, about a breeder in MA.  that uses a "pet travel agent" to ship
her animals to adoptive homes around the country, and world.  Her travel
agent's name is John McGee, founder of PET AIR.  It's a 3 yr.  old Kansas
City, MO.  based firm, one of 65 domestic and 35 foreign members of the
Independent Pet and Animal Transportation Assoc.  International, an
industry group known as IPATA.  The association members handle the
arrangements for shipping, not only cats, dogs and other family pets, but
all kinds of animals within the U.S.  and around the world.
 
McGee had a 23 yr. business of selling animals wholesale to pet stores.
As air shipping became more difficult, he dissolved the wholesale business
to apply his expertise exclusively to pet travel.  For a fee, Pet Air books
flights, picks up and delivers pets to the airport, provides temporary
boarding, gets them on planes, and arranges for them to be picked up and
boarded at their destinations until the owners can retrieve them.  Pet Air
ships approx.  1,000 animals a week, tracks shipments and handles paperwork
for medical requirements.  Pet travel agents, per the article, have been
around for at least 20 yrs., but it's still a relatively unknown industry.
 
Has anyone used this service, or others like it?
 
The article continues........... Millie Woolf, who co-founded IPATA in
1979, said pet travel has become a multi-million dollar industry.  In 1977,
she and her husband opened Air Animal after their Tampa, FL.  vet clinic
received frequent requests to pick up and board animals that had flown into
the area airport.  Services and types of animals handled vary among IPATA
members.  One specializes in horse shipments, others (like Pet Express in
San Francisco) deal only in dogs, cats and birds.  Most don't do reptiles
because it's difficult to recognize stress in this species.
 
Pet Air does a lot of corporate relocations, as well as individual moves.
McGee's clients include dogs, cats and lab mice, and hamsters.  He has
also shipped fish, parakeets, rescue dogs, and Hollywood animal actors.
(No mention of ferrets, but I'm sure they're included.  Have any ferret
breeders that subscribe to the FML use any of these services?)
 
Unfortunately, no listing of phone, address or e-mail for these pet
shipping groups, but no doubt, an Internet search for the IPATA, or phone
work will yield this info.  This seems like such a better way to ship
animals for breeder to owner, ferret shelter to adoptive owners, rescues to
distant shelters, etc.
 
If anyone would like a copy of the full article I have, you can contact me
via e-mail:
[log in to unmask]
 
Phyllis Berker
Lake Villa, IL.
[Posted in FML issue 3048]