Protecting the Animals of Pato Branco

Since moving to Brazil, I have spent a lot of time driving between Pato Branco and Curitiba, along with various other car journeys.  On these journeys, it is not uncommon to see stray dogs by the side of the road, sometimes sleeping, sometimes wondering lost.  Apparently, there are people that get tired of having a dog (or other reasons – I honestly can’t work out what goes on in these people’s minds) that just release (that should be, kick out…) a dog at the side of the road.  Even worse is seeing a dog stranded in the central reservation, with no way of getting food without braving the fast moving, continuous stream of traffic.  I have seen a lot of these strays and it’s a sight I hate seeing – I can’t understand why anyone would treat an animal like that.  My wife and I have often said that if we had a farm (or if we had money) we would love to be able to take in these stray dogs so that they would have a chance in life.

Recently, we found out that someone has done just this.  Seu Lima has a sanctuary just outside Pato Branco where he takes in stray dogs, cats and even monkeys.  Amazingly, he does this without any assistance from the city, even though he is performing a valuable service by giving a home to stray dogs and cats in the city.  When we visited him, we were greeted by a cacophony of dogs barking and seu Lima came out to meet us.  We were immediately taken by his friendly nature and the love for his animals which was clear from the way he spoke.  

Zico holding my hand

He introduced us to Zico, a monkey that, between mouthfuls of watermelon, likes to hold hands with people!  When I reached out a second hand, he took it in his and started excitedly jumping up and down!  He then spotted a tempting rubber attachment hanging off my camera, snatched it away and proceeded to (try) to chew it!  Eventually he gave up on it and abandoned the rubber in favour of a more tempting courgette.  I guess he felt bad about it because he gave me a piece of courgette when I returned!

Seu Lima then took us on a tour of the sanctuary.  He petted each of the dogs as we passed, with a story about most of them.  They were generally kept one or two dogs to a pen and we were impressed with how clean each pen was, despite the huge number of animals.  Most of the dogs (at least those that have spent some time there) appear well fed and in good spirits, although many show signs of the abuse or neglect the suffered prior to their rescue – one fled to the roof of her kennel as I passed and, clearly shaking, urinated in fear.  We also saw animals that with amputated limbs, missing eyes and other injuries and health problems.  Seu Lima told us about the first dog he rescued, who was abandoned at the side of the road and someone had thrown either hot water or hot oil at him.  In some ways, it was horrible to see the state of some of the animals, but at the same time, I was glad that they were being fed, sheltered and very well cared for.

For more information, to find out about adopting a dog or to donate, more information is available (in Portuguese) at the website for the Associação Lima de Proteção aos Animaisde Pato Branco  or at https://www.facebook.com/alpapb/

Seu Lima with the second dog he rescued and one of the assistants

Taking Cats to Brazil - Part 4: The Conclusion!

Curitiba to Pato Branco

I’ll start off with some geography for those not familiar with the south of Brazil.  Our destination of Pato Branco is a small town of less than 70,000 people in the southwest of Paraná.  It is 438km (272 miles) from Curitiba, the capital of Paraná.  This takes approximately 5 hours by car or 7 hours by coach.

Pato Branco, showing the driving route from Rio de Janeiro via Curitiba

The first step in planning this leg of the journey was checking whether the coaches would accept the cats.  Only one company would accept the cats – Cattani.  They operate two services from Curitiba to Pato Branco: “Executivo” – business class or “Leito” – first class sleeper coach, with very comfortable, fully reclining chairs.  We could take the cats in their carriers and they would go in a small cabin where a second driver (for longer journeys) could sleep.  The other company said they would go in the luggage compartment and only if we signed a document absolving them of all responsibility for the welfare of the cats.

So obviously, we decided to go with Cattani.  The executivo departs at 10pm and the leito departs at 10:30pm.  As our flight was due to arrive at 8:30pm (outside the city – the bus station is in the city centre) we resolved to find a hotel; preferably one where we could leave the cats until it was time to get the coach (the earlier coaches are all operated by the shove-them-with-the-luggage-and-don’t-blame-us company.)

Sheila called around various hotels to find one that would accept cats.  The story of one of these calls will stay with me forever:

•          Hello, do you accept cat’s in your hotel?
•          Madam, this is a hotel for people…
•          I’m sorry, you don’t understand, I want to stay here with my cats!
•          Madam, you need to take them to a cat hotel.
•          But I can’t stay with them in a cat hotel!
•          Aaaaaaahhhhhhh…. I’m sorry, we don’t accept cats.

She found one eventually though, Novo Vernon Hotel, directly opposite the bus station.  For an additional R$50 we could have cats, which is perfectly reasonable when you think of the extra mess from hair, food, litter that needs to be cleaned up.  What’s more, we could have the room until 6pm for half the daily rate, which was also very reasonable (after that time, there would be no one to clean the room which would mean they could not let it out.)  In addition, we could leave our luggage as long as we needed – they were extremely helpful.

It did not take us long to see that it would have been impossible to catch the coach the night we arrived.  After collecting our luggage, passing through immigration and customs and having had the cats’ paperwork inspected, we were met my two of our friends from the area (any friend that meets you at the airport with a bag of pão de queijo is a true friend!) and we proceed to fill the car with luggage and cats in a way that should not have been possible!  By the time we were finished, it was already approaching 10pm.  There was no space for passengers, so three of us took a bus to the bus station and we all met at the hotel.

Kiwi's first experience of
Curitiba

We unloaded at the hotel and left the cats for a while to relax in peace (it was only a fringe benefit that we had a few beers and something to eat, honest!)  When we returned, the cats were hiding under the beds, but they purred happily when they realised it was us and there were no more boxes!  We felt sorry for them knowing we’d be putting them through it again the next day, but for the time being, they were free and happy and we were exhausted!

When we got to the bus station, we were told that the cats would be travelling with the luggage.  We weren't happy about this, but by this point we had little choice.  They were in the hard carriers we bought for the flight and the luggage was arranged such that it wouldn't become loose and hit the carriers.  When we finally reached Pato Branco, shortly after 5am, we had two tired, scared but healthy cats, ready for their new life in Brazil with my mother-in-law and her cat, Dunga.  But that’s another story.

If this whole saga has taught me anything, it’s too avoid travelling long distances with pets.  Aside from the cost and hassle of arranging flights, hotels and buses that will take cats, it is incredibly stressful for the cats.  Unless you absolutely cannot leave the cats with someone, don’t take them!  And if you must, avoid American Airlines!

Pretzel taking in the sights and sounds of Pato Branco

Kiwi surveying his new domain

Taking Cats to Brazil - Part 2

Why We’re Never Flying with American Airlines Again.

One of the good things about travelling to Brazil is that each passenger is allowed two pieces of

I wish I could say this was ALL the luggage...

luggage at 32kg (70lb) each.  One of the bad things about travelling to Brazil is that each passenger is allowed two pieces of luggage at 32kg (70lb) each.  So, take two passengers, two pieces of luggage each (close to 32g each, because you would…) a piece of hand luggage (each), a “personal item” (otherwise known as a small bag – they make it sound so seedy!), two carriers complete with two large cats and you have an airport headache the making.  The only sensible thing to do was to drop Sheila off at the departures area with all the luggage then return the hire car whilst recovering my breath and psyching myself up for the trauma to come.

Gratuitous photo of Pretzel

I've been to some airports where the check-in process has been very well thought out and efficient.  This was not the case with the American Airlines’ departures at San Francisco International.  There were a lot of people waiting to check in, about two open check in desks and a staff member running about asking people to check in at the self-check-in terminals.  This was clearly the person to ask about how to check in our cats but when I asked, she told me she would get someone then promptly forgot and continued to run around trying to advise people where to go.  It would have been funny had I not actually needed information.  Eventually I found someone who took the cats to the check in desks and told me to join the end of the check-in assistance queue. 

Quite a short queue when you
think about it.  The mystery is
why it took 40 minutes...

Everyone has had those days at the airport when the check-in queue barely seems to move.  The queue grows longer, tempers fray and people complain about the woman that has been at the check-in counter for over 30 minutes.  It’s annoying, but to be fair, I’m sure that woman is just as annoyed.  Time passes, we inch our way closer to the front of the queue and eventually extra check-in staff are called.  After 40 minutes, we reached the check-in counter and take our turn as those-annoying-people-that-seem-to-take-forever. 

Most of that time revolves around checking the documentation for the cats, filling out extra forms and – of course – paying the extra fees.  The check-in agent was friendly and patient and helped to ensure that all the ‘I’s were dotted, ‘t’s were crossed and that there was nothing untoward that would prevent the cats from reaching our destination.  Next came the carrier inspection, the cable tying of the carrier and the cats were taken away on a trolley. 

Done!  Now comes the easy part…

Time passed, the usual airport tedium, then we finally boarded the plane.  Everyone was seated and settled in, my headphones were out of my bag, my book in my hand when I noticed two flight attendants carrying a fairly large grey box up the aisle.  A faintly familiar grey box.  A slightly more familiar grey box with holes in it.  A really familiar grey box with holes in it, ‘live animal’ in green writing on the side and my cat Pretzel sitting inside.

Sheila followed the flight attendants to the rear galley, where they placed the carrier.  Apparently there was not enough room for two cats.  Eventually we found out that there was a problem with the pressurisation of the hold, so both cats had been taken to the cabin; Kiwi in the front (first class, no less) and Pretzel in economy class with us.  Fair enough, it gave us a chance to try to calm down a stressed cat and give her some water.  Over the course of the 5 hour flight, we popped back a few times to comfort her and were relieved to see the flight attendant firmly holding on to the carrier for landing.  Then things became complicated.

To be continued (and I promise I'll explain the title of this part)

Who doesn't pass time before a flight by messing with an iPad?

Taking Cats to Brazil - Part 1

It’s Never Easy

My wife and I had decided that on our next trip to Brazil, we’d take our cats with us and leave them with my mother in law for the time being.  As was to be expected, it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t cheap; in fact everyone involved seemed to want a piece of the action.

When I booked the trip, I was in the UK on business, so after lengthy planning discussions over the phone at odd times of day, we settled on the American Airlines option; San Francisco to Curitiba via Miami with the cats in the hold.  Most planes have a pressurised compartment in the hold for transporting animals and this was the only option for getting to Brazil with American Airlines (United would allow cats in the cabin, but they couldn’t guarantee the rules for another airline to get from São Paulo to Curitiba.)  Sheila researched the requirements for taking cats into Brazil while I researched the requirements for taking the cats on the plane.

The travel advice varies according to the country you are travelling to as well as the country you are traveling from – always check for the most recent requirements, as they may change.  When travelling from the USA, the best place to get travel advice is the USDA (US Department of Agriculture.)  They advised us of the requirements for taking cats to Brazil:

• Rabies vaccination (the USDA recommends at least 30 days before departure, but this is not officially stated by Brazil)
• Treatment for external and internal parasites within 15 days of departure.  The USDA recommends you have the treatment done when you take the cats for the health certificate examination
• Health certificate examination (recommended within 10 days of departure)
• USDA endorsement

We made our appointment with the vet for 9 days before departure – do this as early as possible before the flight in case of problems or delays – with an appointment at the USDA in San Francisco the following day.

The USDA sent us a pdf copy of the health certificate for us to print out and take to the vet.  For some bizarre reason (in 2015, in the heart of Silicon Valley…) the vets did not have e-mail, so we could not send it directly to them.  If taking two or more animals and they will be on the same flights, you only need one certificate to cover them, although our vet kindly charged the $84 dollar certificate completion fee (I’m in the wrong job) twice, one per animal.  I suppose it takes a lot of extra effort and ink to write a letter 2 in place of a 1.  One of the cats, Kiwi, had a slightly high temperature during the exam, so we had to return with him the next day when the practise opened.  Fortunately, his temperature had dropped by then suggesting that it was stress, as opposed to fever, causing the elevated temperature.  All other results were good, so Sheila made her way to the USDA with the completed certificate.

I say completed, but that’s not quite true.  At the USDA, the official pointed out that the vet hadn’t completed the consignor and consignee fields.  Sheila asked if she was supposed to fill them in and told no.  The official was quite angry explaining that by not filling out those fields, the vet was signing an official document that would allow anyone to take the animals anywhere.  She completed the form, stamped it, then our two cats – Kiwi and Pretzel – were officially on their way to Brazil!

The requirements for the carrier or kennel that would be allowed on the plane are very strict and they vary depending on the airline.  Basically, they need to be made of a sturdy material, not collapsible, have a metal door that can be doubly secured with cable ties and can be bolted together.  I strongly recommend anyone travelling with animals to check with the airline before buying a carrier.  We also bought a couple of pet travelling kits, which included “live animal” stickers for the sides of the carrier, an information sticker, a food and water dish that could snap onto the door of the carrier and cable ties for the door (although the airlines provide these.)  We also put in an absorbent pad (in case of accidents), a cushion, a blanket and a small tray with cat litter.  In the event, the cats didn’t use the litter tray and actually proceeded to sit in, spilling half the contents.  It’s probably better to have it though.  In preparation for travel, we printed photos of the cats to stick to the box in case they escaped, taped copies of the paperwork (health certificates, vaccination certificates etc) to the box and attached a bag of dry cat food, as per the requirements of the airline.

We hired a large car to get everything to the airport, loaded up and set off.

To be continued...

Kiwi

Pretzel