Pets on a Jet Belize

Pets on a Jet. Macarena Rose with Belize Talk Radio speaks with Melanie about how to move Pets to Belize.

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If you want to learn more about the real Belize and listen to local and expat stories of those living in Belize, you’re in the right place. This is Belize Talk Radio. Please welcome your host, Belize and international real estate expert, Macarena Rose.

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Hello, it’s Macarena from Belize Talk Radio. And we are here with an incredible opportunity to share. If you have a pet, you want to know how to get them to Belize. We have the guru, the expert, and coming from someone you know, I moved to Belize 21 years ago with 10 animals, 5 dogs, 5 cats.

[00:43.2]
I sure could have used your help, right. A long time ago. And Ben always here. What’s interesting, I mean, we’re all Keller Williams Belize, Right. The full disclaimer there. But we all do other things, right? Not just real estate. We live here. And, you know, Ben is a hospitality guru.

Founder of Pets on a Jet

[00:58.4]
You know, she’s the guru of pets and animals and all things to how to get them to Belize. So I wanted to share this with you. Melanie, introduce yourself. Hi, I’m Melanie. Melanie Wilcher. I moved here 10 years ago and, I.

[01:15.1]
You want me. Should I just go into, like. Yeah, so I moved her 10 years ago, and I immediately, for the first six months, just wanted to, do charity work and donate my time, volunteer. So I did that. And based on my history, I’m total animal lover.

[01:30.8]
So I immediately just jumped right into the Humane Society. And before you know it, I’m shipping out street dogs and helping, because these street dogs that come to your hotel room and sleep on your doorstep and everybody feeds them and then fall in love with them, which I think is the whole street dog pack plan.

Belize Humane Society to Pets on a Jet

[01:49.2]
So then they’re like, how do we love this dog? How do we get it home? And us at the Humane Society, we would, try to help them, bring them home. And that just evolved into this whole thing that I had no plans or even. I never even could have thunk it.

[02:05.7]
I never could have. So we, we, we would do it for free and just help them. And then in 2018, the airline started creating stronger regulation, required licensing. I had been doing it so extensively throughout the country that I was kind of the obvious person to step into the licensing.

[02:29.0]
So I got licensed. It took thousands of dollars. It took lots of endorsements from veterinarians, from other shippers throughout the world to stand behind me and say, yes, she would make a great shipper. Because it is, the IPATA association, which I’m a member of, is regulated by the IATA association, which is related to the FFA.

Pets on a Jet is Highly Regulated

[02:48.5]
So it’s a very regulated industry to keep your pet safe, to keep the industry safe. To make sure everything happens, by the book. So they arrive, you know, happy and healthy and bouncy and furry still.

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So, yeah, so I had to get regulated. And I did. I got licensed, I mean. And, so then I had to start charging. I started, you know, and it’s got. I started with just a little nominal fee just to cover my gas. But.

[03:19.3]
But it’s become so complicated now as, most people learn as soon as they decide they want to come into a foreign country. Namingly Belize. I am the only licensed live animal shipper in the country. I ship in and out and I ship all over the world.

[03:35.9]
I just shipped a dog to London two days ago, and I’m getting ready to ship three cats. I’m actually going to mule, how we call it down here. When you bring something for someone and they pay your airfare, it can be whatever.

[03:52.8]
It could be medication or an animal. In my case, it’s gonna be an animal. I’m taking one to Panama. All legal stuff. All legal, yeah. Only legal stuff, of course. So I’m going to transport, two dogs down to Panama here pretty quick for this lady.

The Origination of the Business Name Pets on a Jet

[04:08.1]
So, yeah, so that’s the nuts and bolts of who I am and how I became doing what I’m doing. And I created a business. I’m like, well, I’ve got to come up with a business name. And my stepdad, who passed away, two years ago, he goes, how about Pets on a Jet?

[04:27.7]
I’m like, perfect, perfect. Tell what you do. Pets on a jet. They’re your pets, your family members, right? On a jet. My ten animals I brought, I wouldn’t have moved to Belize. One, if there was a quarantine, I wouldn’t have done it. And two, I couldn’t have brought all 10 animals.

[04:44.1]
Right? And it was a feat. And I really wish you were here back then, but I’m so glad you’re here now. And that’s like, really honorary that you are the only one licensed, right? That would be why I call her Jetpet Mel. Jet Mel.

[04:59.4]
He does. Do you know he calls you Jetpet Mel? You do? I love it. It’s how I programmed your name into my memory. Jetpet Mel. Jetpet Mel. Well, you know, so that’s the beautiful thing about this connectivity that we have. You know, people are looking to move or buy to Belize.

Volunteering in Belize

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I always tell people, you know, what are you going to do when you move here. And you knew that you wanted to do volunteer work. Yes. And why not do it with a passion that you had animals. Right. And you did that. And I think that’s something key for people to think about when they’re coming to Belize. That what are you going to do?

[05:31.3]
Because you can only sip fruity cocktail drinks for so long. Yeah. And then you’ve got to dig in and do something different. So I definitely have a full plate with my volunteer work. We actually, you know, for Placencia, we’ve met people like, you know, Gail that has, she does the library work Right.

[05:49.1]
In Placencia. And we are in Placencia, by the way, at the beautiful Naia Resort today. Yeah, right here with the views of the peninsula. Right. But what’s fascinating is like, you know, Gail came here and she works at the library and you came here and you found to do with the animals and the pets.

Belize is Full of Opportunity 

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And you know, Ben, we’ve seen other people that have come and they volunteer and give and we appreciate that because Belize is so full of opportunity. We’re so connected here. We do love your pets. So if you have a four legged pet or any kind of animal you wish to bring to Belize, you contact obviously Jetpet Mel take care of you and your pets.

[06:27.0]
I mean, and it’s not just cats and dogs. I mean I’ve done snakes, I’ve done birds. I just helped a lady with her little hamster her son loves. He’s seven and he has a pet hamster and he loves his hamster and she’s like, we can’t even move if we have to leave the hamster behind.

[06:43.6]
So, you know, we worked on it, worked on it. And she, she’s, they’re just going to drive down with her dog and the family and make it a trip, making it an adventure. And so it’s really important to know that yes, it’s a business because I have annual dues to pay that cost me thousands of dollars.

Community Service in Belize with Pets on a Jet

[07:03.4]
But more importantly, I do it as a service for the community and a service for the animals. So I and for the people. Like, I know I’m an animal lover. Coming in and out, traveling across to a new country is scary with your animal.

[07:20.7]
And so I try to take that fear away and I try to help you navigate it. I don’t charge for the information I have. I only charge if you hire me to ship your animal, then I will charge. But I’m a wealth of knowledge and my website is not up to date with a lot of the questions, because it’s a constantly changing industry.

[07:41.2]
I hope to sometime. It’s one of my goals soon to get it all the questions and answers up there. So you can just go on there and read. But in the meantime, you know, just send me an email. I have to tell you, Melanie, when I was moving here, the kid part was easy.

Learning How to Move Pets to Belize

[07:56.4]
You know, I knew, how to get them to Belize, right. You know, buy a plane ticket. But my pets was very, I mean, that was very important. Me for the five dogs and five cats to have a safe transition, a smooth transition and how to figure all of that. And I was glad if I could have found someone to pay that, you know, consultation, I would have paid him a couple hundred bucks, five hundred bucks for consultation to help me navigate the process, much less to do the process for me so I could land at the airport and just to know that I’ve got peace of mind.

[08:26.7]
Right. I totally get that. Oh, I totally. You know that because your pets are your. They’re part of your family. Right. And that’s a big thing. Yep. Yeah. So I’m curious, what’s the furthest place you’ve shipped a pet to? Well, that’s an interesting question because sometimes it’s not the furthest geographically as it is the time frame to get them there.

[08:49.4]
Because there’s two. That’s two different answers. Probably the furthest I’ve shipped to South Africa. Oh, that’s fun. The. I was a German shepherd, street abandoned, German shepherd that was like 37 pounds.

The longest trip for a dog with Pets on a Jet

[09:06.7]
Full grown male German, female German shepherd. By the time she shipped, she was about 70 something pounds. She would have died within days. She now lives a beautiful life in South Africa. And that wasn’t too bad. That wasn’t too bad. The longest shipment, it took seven days for a dog from here.

[09:24.9]
It was a pit bull to go to, go to, Switzerland. Switzerland. Wow. Wow. Did you pack a sweater for that dog? The Caribbean dog? You know, coming from the Caribbean to Switzerland, I usually say that’s that you don’t measure that distance in miles.

[09:47.9]
You measure that distance on the thermometer. That’s a whole lot of degrees away from me. Yes, yes. And it goes down. Oh my gosh, you guys, the stories it makes me. My mind just starts going about all the dogs and the places I’ve shipped and the things I’ve done.

[10:03.7]
And you know, there was a prince here that was, scuba diving, out on an island. And he went and fed the dogs these little puppies and watered Them. Then he went back again a few days later, and they’re all chained up.

The Prince, The Puppies and the Castle with Pets on a Jet

[10:19.5]
And he was really upset about that. So he bought the dogs from the owner. Apparently, the dogs had killed the neighbor chicken on the island, and so they were going to be living their lives chained up. So he bought them, took him back to the resort. This is a Turtle Inn. Took him back to the resort.

[10:36.1]
They called me and said, we got a problem. We need to get these dogs out of here. And, And so, yeah, we. I started the process, and. And I was mistaken. Those dogs went to Switzerland to his castle.

[10:53.3]
Okay. Oh, my Lord. And the one that took, a week. That dog went to Madrid. Oh, wow. Yeah. So it reminded me when I said that, I’m like, no, wrong. I got my dogs confused. Yeah. Such fascinating stories.

[11:08.5]
So those dogs now live at a castle, in Switzerland. So this one is not much a question as much as it is requests. If anybody ever asks you for a pet Belizean, you can ship me. Okay. You’ll have to get in line.

Contact us to learn more about Pets on a Jet and moving your Pet to Belize

[11:24.6]
The line is extensive. As long as you’re shipping me to a castle. Yeah, okay. Of course. I’ve got all my shots, I promise. That’s good. I personally. I personally want to thank you because what you’re doing is definitely a service and definitely something that’s needed here, and you care so much about the animals, and that’s a beautiful thing that touches my heart.

[11:49.7]
Thank you. Thank you so much. Oh, my God. Thank you. Please contact the link down below. We’ll connect you with Mel, of course. And, thanks for watching.

Click here to read more about Community Service in Belize