Leaving Puerto Rico
Once a dog completes our veterinary protocols and behavioral assessments, they’re ready for their next big step: traveling 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 flight teams to fly our dogs to New York on large planes outfitted for transports. We refer to these journeys as our Freedom Flights—life-changing voyages 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 dogs from each vet clinic into cars and vans, then drives in convoy to the San Juan airport. The team puts their Tetris skills to work as they load the plane. This entire process usually takes place around 2 a.m., when temperatures are lower, no dog is at risk of heat stroke, and they’re nice and sleepy. Once the dogs are loaded, we get to watch them take off and fly toward their new lives. It’s immensely emotional every single time. These transports can carry anywhere from 20 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 hasn’t been matched with a family yet—our amazing volunteers drive them to their new homes or to a foster home.
Want to see our Freedom Flights in action? Watch the video above or click on any of the links at the bottom that feature previous Freedom Flights.