Dog death on flight: companies report challenges in helping owners board animals | Business ideas

The death of five-year-old golden retriever Joca has generated commotion on social media since this Tuesday (23/4). The dog would board a flight in the city of São Paulo bound for Sinop (MT), but ended up being taken to Fortaleza (CE) and then rerouted to the capital of São Paulo. Initially scheduled to last two and a half hours, the trip lasted eight hours.

After the repercussion of the case, the airline Gol, responsible for Gollog, which provided the service, suspended the transport of animals for 30 days – last year, the company took more than 36 thousand animals on cargo flights, according to data obtained by CBN. The ministry of ports and airports and the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) are investigating Joca’s death. The case draws attention to challenges faced in the air transport of animals, a market that includes, in addition to airlines, consulting companies that seek to help with procedures.

Estimates published by ResearchAndMarkets predict that the global pet travel services market could reach US$3.7 billion (R$19.1 billion) in 2030. In Brazil, the general pet services segment represents 8 .6% of the pet sector’s revenue, equivalent to revenue of R$5.9 billion in 2023. According to data from the Instituto Pet Brasil (IPB), there are around 150 million pets, 85 million of which are pets. dogs and cats.

With six years in the market, PetFriendly Turismo has already transported more than five thousand animals within and outside the country. Entrepreneur Juliana Stephani created the business after moving to the USA and leaving her dog Thor in Brazil because she couldn’t find an agency specialized in transporting pets.

Upon returning to the country, Stephani studied the necessary regulations for transporting pets and structured the business. Since 2018, PetFriendly Turismo has offered consultancy on obtaining the required documentation and choosing airlines and animal-friendly accommodation.

“We do everything to make the trip happen, from preparing transportation to delivering the pet. In the consultancy we evaluate how to take the animal, what the route is, what the travel schedule is. We choose the appropriate transport box. The flagship is problem solving [envolvidos no transporte de animais]”, explains Stephani.

The entrepreneur says that the biggest difficulty in operating in the segment is dealing with the rules for transporting animals on flights. In Brazil, each airline defines its own rules and documents required for pet travel, in accordance with ordinance no. 12,307/2023 of the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC).

Sought by PEGN to comment on the topic and the case of Joca’s death, Anac explained that in “cases of damage caused to the pet or emotional assistance during transport, the air carrier must compensate the passenger in the ways listed by the Resolution No. 400.”

In international travel, variations in rules are also another impasse. “We need to respect the laws of each country. There are regulations for microchipping, vaccination, serology, shipping documentation, request for import authorization. All assistance is needed to avoid problems”, explains Wendi Caetano, founder of VoePet, a company that works exclusively with transporting pets outside of Brazil.

Caetano created the business in 2014, but the idea came ten years earlier, when she worked as a veterinarian and helped a Chinese client move to Hong Kong with a labrador. In 10 years, Voe Pet has transported more than 5 thousand animals and today works with options for 150 different destinations. Caetano says that she studies the legislation of each destination and prepares to deal with their respective legal requirements.

Another point of attention is the needs of each tutor. The entrepreneur says she has already arranged the transportation of a pet on a private jet. Depending on the service, VoePet charges amounts in the four to six-figure range. PetFriendly Turismo’s prices also vary according to the service contracted: advice for domestic trips costs R$300, and advice for a pet’s trip to Japan, for example, costs R$7,500.