Calling all airline employees!

Daily I get E-mails from New Rattitude's Urgent Team checking to see if I happen to have an open spot for dogs in kill shelters in the South. There are so many rat terriers down there and young and old alike are ending up euthanized due to lack of space and funds. Thankfully the kill rates in PNW shelters (if they even euthanize) is incredibly low and we have a ton of rescues operating here. The result is that rarely to we end up needing to rescue a Washington rat terrier.

The problem is often the cost of transporting the dogs from places like Shreveport LA, Atlanta GA, and Dallas TX to the Seattle area. It can cost around $200 to transport one adult rat terrier from Atlanta to its foster home in Seattle.

One way we can get around this is to find airline employees to help us fly the dogs. Typically the rate an employee would pay for cargo is 75% off what the airline would charge the rescue organization. So for the price of one dog we can save 4!

If you have any friends or family living in the Puget Sound area who are employed by an airline that flies into Sea-Tac airport then would you please, please, please ask them if they would help us out? All it would take was occasionally working out a time that they could pick up a dog for us. NR volunteers would meet them and get the foster dog immediately.

Also, if y0u know of anyone who has been thinking of fostering, please let me know. Today I was informed of 4 dogs who will be gassed on Friday if the Urgent team can't find a placement for them - yep, that's right, gassed. Washington only has room for 1 of them right now. With the economy the way it is, the number of dogs in the shelters has shot up and the typical numbers of urgent rat terriers we are learning about is triple what we are used to.

Thanks everyone. Oh, and don't forget to keep votine at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/ . New Rattitude could really use the $1,000 grant.

BTW, the photo above is of two of the pups who will be flying here from Atlanta on Tuesday of next week. The litter was listed to be euthanized due to lack of space. Stay tuned for puppy breath reports!