jcwoman

My group rescues and rehomes dogs from Spain to North America. We currently have a small backlog of dogs that need to be transported, but are short of people to act as their escorts. If you are flying an early-in-the-day, nonstop MAD - JFK any time in the next month or two and are interested, here are the details:

* You don't have to pay the pet fee, we will do that.
* We also take care of all of the vetting, legal and airline paperwork, and logistics of getting the dog loaded and unloaded. Your role is pretty much just receiving the paperwork near the check-in counter from our volunteers in MAD, carrying the paperwork on the flight, and handing it off to our volunteers in JFK after clearing the customs checkpoint. (We do this a lot and know the correct paperwork to clear customs, so that's never a problem.)

Easy peasy! There is one challenge, that we will coordinate with you:

* For the safety of the animal, Iberia will not allow the dog to fly if the ground temperatures at either end are above 85 degrees Fahrenheit. We will work with the airline to monitor the temps and let you know if the dog has to be postponed to a flight at a later date. If that happens, of course you continue your flight as normal.

If you're interested and have a flight that may meet this criteria, please contact [email protected]. She'll need your flight number, date and time, and will coordinate with you after she checks with Iberia to see if there is room for a dog on the flight.

And of course, any questions, don't hesitate to ask me!

LupineChemist

85 F = 29.5 C

If you can wait until September, the weather should be good the entire time.

No trips planned myself but I'd be happy to volunteer a weekend doing a turnaround and get some avios out of it if you can't find anyone.

jcwoman

Yes, it's much easier in the fall. But we do have families waiting right now, so if we can find a day here or there to get a dog through, it will really help us out.

irishguy28

Wow. Has North America run out of stray dogs, meaning that they have to be imported from Europe????

ysolde

No trips in the immediate future, but I do have close family in MAD and visit often, so will keep this program in mind. Good to know about this program.

jcwoman

Obviously not, but you can think of it as sort of a "niche market" for people who want a specific kind of dog. Also taking a peek at our website (linked in my sig) will go far in understanding the situation. If it's not your cup of tea, that's just fine.

jcwoman

Thanks! Feel free to share the website url. Note that the website of our "parent" organization is in Spanish and they are located in Medina del Campo, not far from Madrid. A very large part of our mission is to educate the Spanish people that galgos are "pet-worthy" so that we don't HAVE to relocate them to other countries. (Which, as IrishGuy has pointed out is somewhat stupid.) Slowly but surely we are making a cultural shift in that area.

postular

jcwoman, as owner of an adopted dog myself I applaud your wonderful work. But what would you say tho those of us who are extremely wary about transporting anything internationally for another person/organization? I'm asking in all seriousness.

jcwoman

It's a fair question. I assume you're thinking of the possibility of being an unwitting drug mule or something like that? All I can think of to address that is that we (and our sister organizations) transport a couple hundred dogs each year from Spain to North America, and several thousand a year to European countries outside of Spain. Our goal is to get the dogs out because they are still seen as vermin and trash by many of the locals. Our "parent" organization in Spain has educational programs and community involvement to work on solving that problem, but we're talking about cultural shifts and eliminating practices that are considered tradition by many - not an easy task. There are also many other rescue groups in Spain that do the same work. Our parent group has a reputation since it's the oldest and largest dog rescue group in Spain. The focus is entirely on animal rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming, and there's no room for anything else. Also, slightly snarky, if we had ties to the drug trade we wouldn't be struggling so hard to operate on global individual donations.

Here are more details for the transports themselves: You can meet the dogs when they're delivered to the airport for checking in and you're present when they're cleared through security. The dogs themselves are not mules because of what I said above - believe me, we don't save them from hanging and other torture only to use them like that. We adhere to animal welfare and transportation laws, which means every dog has had the required quarantine period and certified as having all vaccinations required by Spanish and U.S./Canadian law and certified as healthy enough to travel. Those are documented in the pet passport that you'll carry on the plane. If there are any issues, our veterinarian will be held accountable, so he takes it pretty seriously. (He refused to certify a dog for us a few months ago because it had been moved from another shelter to ours only a week prior so he wouldn't sign his name stating that he could guarantee it's health.)

Does this help, or is your concern something else? I'm happy to answer any questions.

postular

jcwoman, thanks for your detailed response. I'm sorry to have been the one to raise the issue but I can't be the only one who had the thought. I hope you understand that my intention was to help you find volunteers by asking the question other may have been hesitant to ask.
I spent a lot of time on your web site and your organization is doing such important work. Again, I want to commend you on all you do for these unfortunate animals. Also, I think your longevity here at FT goes a long way to reassuring the people who read this forum.

I'm apologize if you took any offense to my inquiry.

jcwoman

I wasn't offended, and hope I didn't come off that way. That is one of those things that's hard to really prove, so I could only resort to reputation and dedication to mission. Unlike many of my animal rescue peers, I relish the hard questions. It's like the one time someone challenged my greyhound adoption work by asking if we weren't just encouraging them to breed more dogs by taking them off their hands and into homes. Rescue work is never pretty or simple, and those kinds of things really do need to be addressed.

jcwoman

We are still in need of escorts to help us bring back a few dogs over the next month or two. If you are connecting in MAD, you'll need at least a 3-hour connection in order to be able to meet our volunteers and get the dog checked in and through security.

Anyone who can help us this way are angels. We have a few families currently waiting for their pups! See the contact info in the first post to follow up.

craigthemif

I've got a MAD-JFK in early December and would be happy to help out. If you still need volunteers around that time, I'll try to remember to get in touch... (or send me a PM in November)

ThatGirlEdie

Oh, this is amazing. I've bookmarked your site & I'll check in to see if you need volunteers if I'm ever in Spain. Gorgeous dogs!

jcwoman

Thank you, ThatGirlEdie and craigthemif!

They are gorgeous and super sweet dogs. At the risk of being off topic, I marvel (in an unhappy way) at how someone could abuse this breed that is notoriously sweet, loving and forgiving. They are the complete opposite of breeds like rottweilers and pit bulls that lash out after they've been abused. I recently fostered one for two months and even though he was afraid of strangers, he wanted nothing more than love and affection. He'd also been attacked and seriously injured by a dog pack at the shelter and somehow did not develop a fear of dogs from that experience! PM me if you'd like more info about the breed.