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| Qantas is one airline committed to helping animals. |
This weekend we left Australia on a jetplane to attend
the inaugural One Welfare conference in Winnipeg, Mannitoba (you can read a bit
more about One Welfare here).
Since most of the weekend was spent on a plane (of the
Air Canada variety), I wanted to discuss some animal-friendly airline initiatives
back home.
Those of you who have travelled in the sky are familiar
with the little blankets given to passengers. And if you’ve been lucky to fly
business or first class, you might even get a duvet or mattress cover.
Ever wondered what happens to those? For years, Qantas
has donated them to humans in need.
But this year, Qantas teamed up with the RSPCA NSW to promote
animal welfare and reduce waste by donating old blankets to animals in need. The blankets are cleaned and picked up by RSPCA NSW shelter
trucks.
According to Customer Product and Service Development
Phil [nice name] Capps,“We have donated blankets and duvets to people in need
around the country for many years and we are really proud to extend our
donation program to help animals. We are flying more people than we have ever
before, which means we have more blankets to give, so it’s great they get a
second opportunity for use by our four-legged friends.”
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| Images reproduced courtesy of Qantas. |
RSPCA NSW uses the blankets for multiple species – including
cats, dogs, ferrets and pocket pets.
It’s good to see that a product that might otherwise have
limited use is being recycled in this way.
In another pet-friendly initiative, Virgin AustraliaCargo last month announced a partnership with pet transport company Jetpets to
help unite rescue pets with foster carers and new owners – for free.
It means that cost of transport for adopting animals from
non-profit organisations such as PetRescue will no longer be a barrier.
According to Virgin Australia Cargo Chief Executive
Merren McArthur, “we understand that more and more Australians are making the
great decision to adopt a rescue pet, so we’re delighted to be helping Jetpets
and rescue organisations overcome distance and travel barriers so that pets can
be matched with loving homes.”
Jetpets General Manager Belinda Gallpen added that while Jetpets
has supported the work of rescue organisations like PetRescue for years,
partnering with Virgin Cargo makes the process much easier.
“This allows more doors to be opened which increases the
chance of pets finding loving adopter and foster homes.”
It’s great to see that Australian airlines are taking
animal welfare seriously. We’re still looking forward to the day that animals
will be able to be transported within the cabin so both animals and humans can
relax a bit more.
Of course, not every individual animal or every species
can be suitably transported in this way, but I do think the process would be
much friendlier for animals travelling with people (and probably result in a few more people taking a holiday!).
