OPA’s Transport Program
OPA pioneered the use of transport more than 10 years ago as a way to move Texas shelter animals to shelters and rescues in other areas of the country that have capacity and a desire to help find forever homes for these deserving animals. Volunteer opportunities for our transport program include helping with getting animals vetted for health certificates, photography, checking temperament and helping with transport the morning of the flight or truck transport. Here’s how to help with our transport program:
Attend Orientation
Join us every second Thursday of the month to learn about the various volunteer opportunites available in Operation Pets Alive! See when our next orientation is here.
Foster a Transport Candidate
Transport candidates are usually a two to four week time commitment.
Shuttle Fosters to Vetting
Transport candidates must receive the proper health clearances to receive their ticket on transport! Whether you are fostering or wanting to help out another foster, we need volunteers to ensure the transport candidates make it to vetting appointments and the health certificate clinic.
Help on Transport Day
Last minute vetting, taking photos for our website and social media, getting transport candidates to the loading site, help with organizing and loading – it’s all hands on deck for transport day!
Join the OPA Transport Team
Are you great using date reports and Excel spreadsheets? There are lots of transport tasks that involve creating data reports, printing out transport packets, scanning transport files, sending out communications and sending thank you notes to our fosters. We are also in need of a volunteer to help assess transport candidates.
Flight for Life
Operation Pets Alive organizes “rescue flights”, for “at risk” homeless dogs in Montgomery County. These flights would not be possible without our partnerships with the receiving shelters. All are great organizations working hard to help communities become no-kill communities.
While our community, and Texas in general, struggles with a large homeless animal population, our partnering shelters in the Northeast place 99.9% of homeless pets. Most of our flight candidates come from our two local shelters in Montgomery County, Montgomery County Animal Shelter, and Conroe Animal Shelter. Each flight transports 20 to 40 dogs to a more secure future. Our funding for these flights comes from many sources, individuals as well as organizations. Without sponsorship the flights would not be possible. You can sponsor a dog for approximately $200 or a whole flight for $5,000. Some sponsors of past flights are: LoneStar Animal Welfare League, Shelter Volunteers of Texas, and many individuals.
Volunteer opportunities include helping with getting animals vetted for health certificates, photography, checking temperament and helping with transport the morning of the flight. Our greatest need for our transport program as a whole, besides sponsorship, is foster homes. To learn more about fostering, click here. If you are interested in volunteering, contact us at volunteer@OperationPetsAlive.org.
OPA is currently seeking a new transport partner with a pilot and plane.
Pups on Trucks
This program takes dogs by road to partnering no-kill shelters, where there is a greater demand for adoptable dogs. Sometimes this is the best transport option. For example, we usually move large dogs to safety via road transport.
We currently use Mighty Mutts and Freedom Rides of Texas as our transport carriers.
Volunteer opportunities include helping with getting animals vetted for health certificates, photography, checking temperament, dog washing, and of course fostering. If you are interested in volunteering to help contact us at volunteer@OperationPetsAlive.org.
Foster homes are always needed!!! Fostering for a transport, if everything goes right, is a two to three week commitment. To learn more about fostering for OPA, click here.
Current Transport Partners
