Pigs really can fly
Although horses are clearly the superstars of the animal transport world, they are hardly the only types of live cargo being shipped. Sharks, lions and exotic birds have all been transported by air. A herd of 100 bison were moved in a C-130 from a conservation center in Portage, Alaska, to Shageluk, Alaska, to be introduced back into the wild in March. Ft. Lauderdale-based Amerijet once moved Shamu the whale.
At Intradco, horses take up 80 percent of its focus, but the remaining 20 percent involves a wide range of livestock and exotics, McMullen said. Earlier this year, Intradco moved 33 giraffes from Johannesburg to Bangkok in a 747F, en route to a massive safari park. Additionally, the firm shipped 200 crocodiles from Nairobi to Turkey in April.
Moving animals across borders requires that every animal meet rules and regulations, McMullen said. They must be free of disease and pass veterinary tests or they will not get export papers. Upon reaching their destination, an animal will be quarantined, with the length of time dependent on the rules in the destination country. “South Africa has African horse sickness, so Europe and the U.K. won’t accept them,” he said. “We send them to Mauritius for 90 days in quarantine; once they are declared free of disease we can move them to Europe.”
Intradco started out carrying general freight, but McMullen said over the years animal transport became its niche, and that is what it has been specializing in for 30 years. Last year, Intradco was purchased by air charter specialist, Chapman Freeborn, which gave Intradco the ability to share knowledge with 30 offices internationally instead of the two they had, in London and Ireland. In return, Chapman Freeborn gained expertise on animal transport, without having to start from scratch, which McMullen said can take a very long time. The company’s most active hubs are in Dubai, Florida, South Africa and South America.
This year, the competition will be heating up for airports that can handle multiple types of animal shipments. On March 23, Rickenbacker International Airport in rural Ohio, became one of a handful of U.S. airports designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an approved port for the embarkation of animals. In March, 176 pregnant cows were shipped from Rickenbacker to Thailand for milk production, in partnership with TLT Silver Tiger Logistics, which helped secure the aircraft. This was the first flight from Rickenbacker with livestock on board.
Bryan Schreiber, manager of business development for the all-cargo airport, said TLT wants to make Rickenbacker a special gateway for farm animals and equine facilities, exporting to 48 countries. “We have a specialized processing facility where the animals arrive from the farms, then get processed within a matter of hours,” Schreiber said. “They are quarantined off airport and we can have them crated and on a plane within an hour.” When the animals arrive at Rickenbacker, they are unloaded onto a semi-trailer that has been converted into a chute designed to minimize the stress of the process. Then they enter through the side of the trailer near the front, make one turn and go straight onto a specially designed platform and directly into the shipping container. The animals never touch the ground this way.