Transport of a Dog overseas

Hi,

Early last year we moved country and had some professional help in moving our pet dog to the new residence. It made me wonder about the conditions of the transport. Actually I started to think about the problem and teamed up with a colleague to develop a transportation logger to log the conditions of transport. In the case of transporting a pet then it could tell temperature, humidity and shock over the journey. So far we have made a simple prototype and now launched it on KickStarter to see if we can raise the funds to make it a product for people to use.

What does everyone think about the idea? Do you think it would help in moving pets around and ensuring they get transported under reasonable conditions? You can get more by going to KickStarter on the Web and searching for the GHT Transportation logger. Looking forward to your feedback.

Regards
Mark

So what would you do if your logger told you an animal was transported in conditions less favourable than recommended? Or the logger had been turned off by the transporter?

What kind of shock does it record? Psychological? Or going over bumps in the road?

Hi, thanks for the questions. Well basically there is no way that someone can really turn it off since it reamins running so long as there is battery and the battery lasts for months to years depending on the logging selection. It is still a good question about what to do when the conditions are exceded. I guess then one has grounds to complain about the conditions and real proof that somthing needs to be improved. You will end up with a complete log of shock, temperature and humidity as a function of time during the journey.

Regards
Mark

Is it to install in vehicles that you own?

Do you run a pet transport company?

If not - why would an 'outsider' want to install the equipment in their vehicles and possibly expose themselves to complaints?

I expect if it is a device that can be fitted to standard pet transportation crates, and provide real-time readings, or at least short delay readings, as well as alerts be made available to the pet owner and/or transport co-ordinator it would ensure any drops in standard be addressed promptly? If it only provides read-outs once connected to a computer once the pet/package has arrived then I'm not sure how enticing it would be to the pet market.

As muddy said, I don't think transportation companies in general would want to expose themselves but perhaps in regards to mass-animal transportation it might be something that could be used to raise/enforce the ethical standards in which livestock are transported?

Best of luck to you in your endeavour though.

And if the dog/cat is in a crate in the hold and the alert goes off when the plane is half way across the Atlantic...?

I wouldn't expect that to happen as we can't currently use cell phones mid flight over the atlantic so doubt such a device would be allowed either. I'm not the designer and wouldn't likely be a buyer of such a device, but as someone who works in the software industry I do find the concept interesting.

Looking at their Kickstarter page it seems the pet/animal angle is a divergence from it's original market.