The IPATA Conference (International Pet and Animal Transportation Association) is always one of our favorite events of the year! The 2019 conference was held in Chicago, so we packed our bags and flew to the windy city. We had a great time strengthening relationships with our partners and colleagues around the world, including Heathrow ARC, Dogtainers Australia, Bliss Italy, PBS UK, and many other IPATA members.
Insightful Facts and Key Takeaways
- A big topic of discussion was Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS). The breeds most likely to have BOAS are Pugs, French Bulldogs and English Bulldogs. Corrective surgery is often possible to improve their health.
- While The Puppy Smuggling Scandal was a very informative session, it was unfortunate to learn how dishonest people take advantage of pet lover’s emotions for profit. Fortunately, Claire Calder informed us of how we can identify and protect ourselves from such people.
- In Planning for the Unexpected, Les Oaks gave us some wonderful ideas that will make great additions to our disaster preparedness plan. We also liked Bobby Ozuna’s idea about creating a video to help educate our clients on how we operate, in order to help them avoid being scammed.
- During Emily Pieracci’s talk, we gained some valuable insight into how we can optimize our standards of procedure and our employee handbook. These new insights would help in further improving our already high measures of safety.
Other Highlights From Our Trip to the Windy City!
Aside from getting the chance to network with our fellow IPATA partners and gain valuable information from the different conference speakers, we also enjoyed a wonderful team dinner at Kiko’s Bosnian Restaurant.
We dined with the Airpets UK team and our good friend Ross Hayes – the star of Animal Airport – the popular British reality show about the HARC Heathrow Animal Reception Center and the adventures of pet shipping into London.
Putting Your Pet’s Safety First
Overall, our time at the conference was a blast! The best part was learning about the ways we can improve our industry. To ensure that you and your pet have the safest travel experience possible, consider us when making your pet’s travel plans.
