Creating New Beginnings for Aloha Pets

Paws Across Water Hawaii (PAWHI) is dedicated to rescuing shelter pets and reuniting them with the love and care they deserve. PAWHI operates under the Three Ring Ranch Exotic Animal Sanctuary 501 C 3 umbrella, and has been saving shelter pets since 2022. The program was created as a way to save the lives of County of Hawaii animal control shelter pets who were not being selected for local placement by Big Island rescues.

The shelter animals are carefully evaluated for behavior to see if they would make an adoptable Aloha pet for one of our mainland rescue partners. The list of rescue partners is below.

Once a shelter pet has been behaviorally evaluated – passes a very detailed series of tests to be sure it is going to thrive – that pet goes into our approved animal file. Mainland rescue partners have specific acceptance criteria. Some are only able to take smaller dogs, some mature, others puppies and some breed restricted. But all must have excellent dog to dog and dog to human behavior.

Then here is where the volunteers come into play. Getting these dogs to mainland rescues requires us to pair them with an Animal Flying Companion (AFC) who is someone that is already flying on Alaska Air (or Hawaiian) from Kona to the mainland. We add a dog to their reservation at no cost to the AFC. We accept the dog from the County of Hawaii shelter in advance and make sure it is ready to fly. We provide the dogs with the health certificate exam and rabies vaccine. On the day of travel we collect the dog from the shelter or private boarding facility and meet the AFC 2 hours pre flight to check the Aloha pet in. Once the Aloha pet is checked in the AFC flies as they normally would. Upon landing the AFC heads to baggage claim and meets the mainland rescues Hero volunteer and hands off the paperwork.

That’s it! Now the Aloha pet is on its way to the new shelter or foster home before being quickly adopted into a forever home.

Most pets fly in the cargo hold but occasionally we send a cat or small dog that can qualify as carry on. AFC do not need to do a carry on pet but those can be flown on other airlines.

Crates are broken down by the mainland rescue and other volunteers who are flying this direction offer to bring them back as baggage.

We have mainland rescue partners in the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.

If you or someone you know are planning a Big Island visit or live here and have mainland guests coming, please consider becoming an Animal Flying Companion. Send your travel plans to ann@pawhi.org so maybe you can save a life or two.

If you have leashes or airline approved crates we can always use those.

If you would like to sponsor a pets rescue we would love to hear from you. Each flight costs $150, each dog is required to have a health certificate and rabies vaccine which costs an additional $220.

Many thanks,

Ann