Canine Rescue Flights was developed by volunteer pilots and rescue volunteers. After more than a year of studying how both private pilots and volunteer rescues actually work, and listening to rescue successes and suggestions from all people involved we comitted to constantly develop and refine our "system" with two goals in mind:
-
Save pet lives by getting transports completed, and...
-
Working this into the routine that best suits all involved.
Canine Rescue Flights and our volunteers focus on transports within the state of Florida. Our strategy works in "reverse" of a few other similar volunteer pilot groups. We found that more pilots were willing to volunteer to fly a rescue pet on flights they were already planning to make.
Instead of searching for pilots that will fly a specific route, our volunteer pilots notify us when they are flying and in what areas. We then pass that information to Rescue Groups who can then decide if they have a pet (or pets) that need transport within that area.
Based on feedback: We do not use continuous strings of bouncing emails, difficult forums or logins, etc. Instead we use a private Twitter.
-
A single Twitter feed posts the flights and locations we have available from those pilots that have volunteered.
-
Rescue volunteers and Transport coordinators that are looking for flights "follow" our Twitter feed.
-
Rescue volunteers and Transport coordinators then "tweet" a reply only when they have one or more pets that can use a posted available flight.
-
That's it! The connection is made. Everyone knows when a flight has been taken. The pilot and rescue rep / transport coordinator can then converse via phone or email to discuss details.
No more chaos, no more overloaded email boxes, group emails, logins, etc. Questions about flights are handled off-line, not on Twitter. And the system is nearly instantaneous! Plus, Twitter can be followed on any smart phone!
Sure, it is a little more work for us... but it ends up being smoother and faster. Results don't lie. We have more flights completed because our volunteer pilots were "already going that way".
In this tight economy we had to explore new ways to make the most of flights that were already happening... the doggies are now just going along for the ride!
How can I join
If you are a Rescue volunteer / representative or a Transport Coordinator and would like to follow our Twitter Feed to learn about available flights, please go to our contacts page and use the Requests link. Send us your contact information and your Twitter acount name... this way when you send a twitter "follow" request, we will know to add you to the private twitter feed.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have not contacted us in advance, and you "follow" the feed on twitter - you will be blocked. We apologize for this, but it is the only way to control this process.
If you are a volunteer pilot and would like to notify us of a flight you are taking where you can carry a rescue pet, please go to our contacts page and use the Volunteers link. Send us your contact information and the date, time and locations of your flight. We will post your information to the Rescues.
