Leaving Puerto Rico

Once a dog completes our veterinary protocols and behavioral assessments, they are ready for their next big step: to travel off the island for adoption! They receive a final check-up and ‘physical’ from our vet, and travel and health certificates are issued. We partner with fellow non-profit Wings of Rescue to fly our dogs to New York on large planes outfitted for transports. We refer to these transports as our ‘Freedom Flights,’ the life-changing journeys that allow each dog’s dream of a forever family to finally come true. 

Our small but mighty Puerto Rican team works through the night to load the dogs at each vet clinic into cars and vans and then we drive in convoy to the San Juan airport. The team puts their Tetris skills to work and loads the plane. This whole process usually takes place around 2am - when temperatures are lower, no dog is at risk of heat stroke and they are nice and sleepy. Once the dogs are loaded, we get to watch them take off and fly to their new lives. It is immensely emotional each and every time. These transports can be anywhere from 20 dogs to as many as 280 dogs at once! 

ARRIVING IN NEW YORK OR NEW JERSEY

We have an incredible transport team that meets our flights at smaller municipal airports in New Jersey or New York. Each sato is greeted with smiles (and sometimes happy tears), hugs and love. We clean their crate, put a martingale collar and harness on each one and take them to meet their new families. Our adoption team does an excellent job of finding the perfect match for each dog before they even leave Puerto Rico. This means that most of our dogs get to meet their new families directly at the airport!  When a family cannot come to the airport to meet their new best friend, or a dog has not been matched to a family yet, our amazing volunteers drive them to their new homes or a foster home. On larger transports, we often partner with one of our trusted shelter partners to help place dogs with families after they arrive. 

Want to see our Freedom Flights in action? Watch the video below from our biggest transport ever of 280 dogs and cats. Or click on any of the links at the bottom that feature previous Freedom Flights.