Operation Roger…Truckers Pet Transport

By Linda Cole

Where would we be without the dedicated truckers who move products and food all around the country? No matter where you live, trucks deliver anything and everything to communities and businesses. Operation Roger is a nonprofit organization made up of long haul and regional truckers who use their trucks to transport a very precious cargo – homeless pets – to new locations around the country.

America has always been a country made up of people with a “can do” spirit that never wavers. After Hurricane Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast in 2005 devastating the area, one pet loving trucker wanted to do something to help pets left homeless by Katrina. The only thing she could think of was to use her truck to help transport shelter pets from the area to give them a better chance of finding a new home.

Sue Wiese had the courage to go on a trucker's radio show to ask if any truck drivers would consider moving pets in their rigs to new locations across the country. She was surprised to discover that yes, they would. So on September 16, 2005, Operation Roger…Truckers Pet Transport was created. It's a nonprofit organization that moves shelter pets and pets from rescue groups to new homes no matter where they are.

Operation Roger is named after Sue's Manchester Terrier who passed away in 2005, just three months before Katrina hit. Roger was adopted from a shelter and enjoyed two years on the road with his human. Roger had been important to Sue and the more she thought about all of the pets that had been affected by Katrina, the more she knew something needed to be done to try and help shelter pets.

Operation Roger takes only one or two pets at a time in a truck, so that the driver can give them individual care and attention. People who moved to new areas of the country and had to leave a beloved pet behind can go to Operation Roger's website to request help in transporting their pet from their old home to the new one. Shelters and rescue groups can also find information on how to request transportation for their pets to new areas of the country.

How the program works is pretty simple. Operation Roger looks for a driver who will be driving straight through to a pet's new home. If a direct connection can't be found, then layover homes are used to give the pet a temporary foster home where they can wait for their next ride. Shuttle drivers are pet lovers who may not be able to house a pet in a foster home and instead volunteer to drive the pet on to their destination.

The goal of Operation Roger is to create a network of truckers nationwide who can help transport pets. They are always on the lookout for interested pet-loving truckers who would like to help out, and more temporary foster homes are needed for the pets who need a place to stay while waiting for their next ride. People who can use their own vehicles to drive shorter distances are also needed. Pilots are welcome to check their website for any pets they could fly across the country. I can't help but wonder what kind of a rescue transporting organization we could have in this country if Pilots N Paws and Operation Roger ever joined together. It would be an awesome system with one goal in mind: saving the lives of shelter and rescued pets all across the country.

In the almost six years since Operation Roger transported their first pet to a new home, they have moved 568 pets across the country. Rescue groups and shelters understand some pets may never find a home in certain areas of the country. The problem has always been how to get one pet, or a group of pets, from one part of the country to another part without requiring an individual to drive hundreds or thousands of miles just to relocate one pet.

With the help of nonprofit organizations like Operation Roger and Pilots N Paws, homeless pets have a much better chance of finding the loving home they deserve. These people have all stepped up to the plate to help make a difference to homeless pets in shelters. Visit Operation Roger's website if you or someone you know would like to help in their lifesaving mission. The next time you pass a truck, smile and give the driver a thumbs up – because they just might be transporting a pet to a new home.

Photo by Julia Manzerova

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Pilots N Paws: Pilots Saving Shelter Pets

By Linda Cole

Nonprofit organizations across the country help pets in a variety of ways. Pilots N Paws is an online organization with a unique transporting program that has given rescue organizations, shelters and people who foster pets the ability to move unwanted and homeless pets to locations around the country where a new home is hopefully waiting for the pet. Pilots and plane owners who want to help improve the chances that a pet can find a forever home are offering their planes and time. They fly pets from an area where there's little chance a pet can be placed in a home, to another area where the pet's chances of being adopted are much better. Pilots are also flying pets who have been adopted to their new homes around the country. Pilots who want to help rescue shelter pets can get together with shelters and rescue organizations to plan their own special way of saving a pet's life.

Pilots N Paws is a volunteer organization that doesn't ask for donations. It's a website that was started by Debi Boies who was involved in Doberman rescue in upstate South Carolina and her friend, Jon Wehrenberg, a pilot, who had volunteered to fly a rescued Doberman from Florida to Debi's home in South Carolina. After the flight, the two began to discuss the need for a better way of moving homeless pets across the country besides the traditional way of setting up car transports. They began on February 8, 2008 with their first official life-saving flight. To date, the volunteer pilots number over 1,800 and there are 8,100 registered users with more registering every day who use the Pilots N Paws website to connect with each other. Debi and Jon are shooting for 10,000 pilots to make sure there are enough planes to transport homeless pets wherever they need to go to help them find a new home.

Their site has a forum where rescue groups and shelters can post messages about any pets needing transport to a new location. A pilot reading the forum determines which, if any, of the pets they can assist. The pilot will then contact the person or organization making a flight request, and the two parties make appropriate plans for transporting the pet.

Pilots N Paws has a 501(c)(3) tax status. Pilots are not allowed to accept any money that would compensate them for any of the flights they make. However, the FAA gives the nonprofit organization a Humanitarian Flights tax status which allows pilots to declare part of their expenses for flights as donations, which are tax deductible.

Soldiers returning from overseas who have rescued dogs from the war zone transport the dogs on commercial flights to the U.S. Once on American soil, a pilot then flies the dog to the soldier's home. One transport flight carried a Steppe Eagle that a group of Navy Seals had rescued in Afghanistan after the bird had been shot. The eagle's new home is at Berkshire Bird Paradise alongside an American Bald Eagle.

Pilots who volunteer do so because most are happy to have a good excuse for hopping in their plane and taking off. And any time you can combine saving a homeless pet's life with flying, it's a good thing. Cats, dogs, reptiles, pot-bellied pigs, rabbits and one 13 foot python have been transported by pilots to new locations throughout the United States.

If you agree with the mission of Pilots N Paws and would like to help or get involved yourself, please visit their website for more information. They are always searching for more pilots who haven't heard about their organization and who might want to become involved in their life-saving mission. If you are a pilot, or know one who might be interested in helping to relocate homeless pets, you can find what you need on their website. To help spread the word, you can download and print out a flyer from the site to post at your local airport.

Shelter pets can use all the help we can give them. Whether it's donating some CANIDAE dog food or cat food to a shelter or rescue organization, or posting a flyer at your local airport or anywhere around town where people can read it, the help is always appreciated. Millions of pets need forever homes. The ability to transport them from one shelter to another one where the pet has a better chance of finding a home, or delivering a pet to a new home, is very satisfying to the pilots who donate their time and plane to save a pet's life.

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