Dear Fellow Pet Lover,

Many of you may, or may not have, heard about Vivi, CH. Bohem C’est la Vie, the whippet who was lost while in the care of Delta Airlines at JKF Airport in New York City, after competing at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, on February 15, 2006.

Vivi is still missing.

In 2005, the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act was put into play. Also called the “Boris Bill”, named after Barbara Listenik’s dog who was lost during transport via the airlines, requires that airlines must report on all pets lost, injured or killed while in the care of the airlines.

This reporting is posted monthly on the USA Department of Transportation web site: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/index.htm

Fortunately, the number of pets lost, injured or killed since the reporting process began, is approximately 100 incidents. However, one pet that is lost injured or killed during airline transport is one too many. Granted, some of the incidents that have been reported were at no fault of the airlines, but through education of airline employees and educating the pet owners fewer incidents may happen.

Also, as part of the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act, all airline employees must be trained in the proper handling of pets while in their care. Through numerous correspondence from many people who have used the airlines for their pets transport, we are finding out that there doesn't seem to be much training at all.

We've also come to find that many pets are lost during their flights, are either lost/misplaced somewhere within the terminal or they were mistakenly shipped to another airport. There is no real tracking done on the crates these pets are traveling in and much confusion and heartache to the pets owner when these type of incidents occur. So far, we have not seen any of these type of incidents reported by the airlines. It seems the reporting is only done if the animal is NOT recovered and the lost pet incident, whether it's lost for an hour or a day, does NOT get reported.

The Vivi Crusade needs your help to gather information on any and all incidents of injured, killed or lost pets, even if the pet was lost for a short period of time and whether or not there was no report filed by the owner.

Please forward the enclosed/attached Vivi Crusade Questionnaire to as many animal lovers as possible so that we can gather information to help the Vivi Crusade make air travel safer for pets.

Together, we will make a difference.

Thank you.

The Vivi Crusade Team

For more information about transporting animals, please visit:

http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/publications/animals.htm