Lady and Champ

Lady and Champ had been living outdoors for many months, due to a change in the family structure and priorities. Luckily, their family was very responsible and contacted BRAT. The pair were no longer house trained and not guaranteed to be able to get along with other dogs. Because of this, it was difficult to find a foster home. Most of our foster homes in the mid-Atlantic and southeast already have at least one basenji, many with more than one. Thankfully, we were able to find a foster home for Lady and Champ in Zion, IL. However, since they were coming from North Carolina, we were faced with a huge transport problem to get them to Illinois.

Traditionally, BRAT coordinators arrange most transports as car trips, where we recruit multiple drivers to drive different legs of the trip to get the dogs where they need to go. This is typically what we refer to as the Basenji Underground Railroad (BUR), and it is very time-consuming to arrange and relies heavily on the goodness of our volunteers to “pull through in a pinch.” However, doing long-distance transports this way is not really feasible – for example, if Lady and Champ were to be driven to Illinois from North Carolina, their travel time would have been at least 16 hrs by car (not including stops or overnights) with approximately 13 different drivers, increasing the probability driver delay or worse, the possibility of escape!

Recently, BRAT coordinators have been trying to find alternative ways to arrange long-distance (or sometimes even short-distance) transports. Rather than traumatize a dog by putting them through multiple drivers and multiple transfers, we can often get dogs where they need to go using air transport. Organizations such as Pilots ‘n’ Paws, Animal Rescue Flights, and more will give free air transport to rescue animals through their networks of private pilot volunteers. For Lady and Champ, BRAT coordinator Michelle Martenis reached out to Animal Rescue Flights and was able to arrange a free air transport that spanned 6 states and involved 3 pilots (instead of 13+ drivers) to get Lady and Champ to Illinois in a matter of hours instead of days. Because of ARF, Lady and Champ are now happily in their foster home in Zion, IL. On behalf of BRAT, a big thank you to ARF!!


Here are Lady and Champ at the beginning of their first flight.


Here is the flight path from Lady and Champ’s itinerary.

Here are some tips from BRAT coordinator Michelle Martenis for setting up a flight with ARF:

• Go to the ARF Transport Request Website to post a transport request. It's most important to read, follow the directions, and fill out the request form as complete as possible. Give them at least 2 to 3 weeks notice if possible. The coordinators (Julia and Clark) are volunteers as well and may not be able to respond to your emails very quickly, so it may take some time to post the request.
• To help determine the best airports to start and end your transport, use this website to find small public airports. The volunteer pilots generally like smaller airports because they’re easier to get a small plane in and out of.
• When filling out the transport request, the information placed in the "sending shelter/rescue" portion of the ARF Transport Request Form will be the address of where they base the starting airport. The individual's name used here will be the person that the pilot will expect to drop off the dog. Similarily, the "receiving rescue" will be the person that the last pilot will have instructions to turn the animals over to.
• From that transport request form, ARF posts the flight request on their website. You may not be able to see it on the website when they post your request, but the pilot volunteers will be able to see it and will begin responding to it. You can also join the aviation meetup group (follow the “Pilots and volunteers” link on the ARF home page), so that you can monitor your transport request and the responses posted to your flight plan.
• Once all legs of your flight request have been filled, you will be contacted by the ARF coordinator with instructions for the day of the flight. They will send you an "Animal Rescue Flights Final Flight Sheet" with all the details of your transport.
• Because the flights are weather-dependent (including variables like wind speeds, etc) and these are small planes that are more vulnerable to weather conditions than large commercial jets, you may not know until the night before that a planned flight is definitely going to take place. So, you may want to keep a backup vehicle transport plan just in case.
• All animals must be crated for plane transport. Some planes are very small, so keep crate size in mind when planning your flight.
• During the process, any questions can be directed to arfmail@aol.com or for help getting started, PLEASE call BRAT Coordinator Michelle Martenis at 252-571-7659

Here are some pictures of successful ARF rescue flights!