PRESS RELEASE: THIS HOLIDAY SEASON DON’T MAKE ROAD TRIPS RUFF

Pet Safety Tips for Traveling

Herndon, VA/Tampa, FL (December 13, 2010) — Pets make great travel companions and as this holiday travel season begins, pet parents will be road tripping with four-legged family members.  According to the U.S. Travel Association, 18 percent of U.S. adult leisure travelers usually take their pets with them when they travel. 
Fetching Communications’ founder, Kristen Levine, is hitting the highway soon for a road trip from Florida to Colorado with her dog Chilly.  Levine is part of Toyota’s PET team, a panel of pet lifestyle experts who tour the country promoting pet safe auto travel using quality pet restraint systems to limit driver distraction—thus protecting both two and fourlegged passengers.
Stopped at a rest area on I-95?  Look out for Levine, who will be chatting with pet parents and video
blogging about their travel safety concerns.

So how should pet parents keep dogs and cats safe on a road trip?  Just ask Levine’s client and credentialed pet safety expert, Ines de Pablo.

“Whether your pets travel with you on vacation, to another country, or just to the dog park, it is essential to remember a few rules to insure safety and comfort for you and your pet,” said de Pablo. She founded Wag’N Enterprises in 2007 to offer the necessary gear, supplies and training to effectively mitigate, prepare and respond to emergencies that impact pet health and safety.

Because it is easy to become distracted and lose track of what’s happening with pets while traveling, it is important to establish rules to keep pets safe. Wag’N Enterprises, the only company dedicated exclusively to pet safety, recommends the following tips to help keep pets safe during holiday travel:

License and registration please ma’am:  While pets should wear collars with regular identification, county license, microchip and rabies tag AT ALL TIMES, pet identification is absolutely imperative when traveling. Carry a record of pets’ medical history, proof of ownership and vaccinations, a photo of the pets too along with emergency contact numbers.  Order a Wag’N Pet Passport, the perfect solution for keeping all of this information together in one place.

Snouts and paws in the vehicle: Parents don’t let children travel in the car without a seat belt or allow toddlers to hang their heads out the window, and pet parents shouldn’t either. Pets should be secured in a pet crate, by a dog harness connected to a seat belt, or behind a divider to keep the pet in the cargo area of a wagon or SUV. “You don’t want your animal to roam loose in the vehicle,” explains de Pablo, who initiated the No Tails Left Unbuckled Campaign to encourage pets be buckled up while riding in a vehicle. “And even if your dog is secured by a harness, make sure his head remains inside the car. If a pet’s head is hanging out the window, flying debris hitting soft tissue can cause severe blunt trauma to the pet’s face and other debris such as pollen, dust, and gravel can cause eye inflammation and even blindness.” It’s also unwise to leave your dog unrestrained in the bed of a pickup truck where they could fall, jump out or become airborne projectiles, de Pablo warns.

Road trip hydration for humans is coffee.  For pets, it’s just plain water.  Hydration is essential. When hiking, camping, at the beach, on regular walks, in the car, or during a winter storm, the provision of fresh water remains mandatory for pets. The Wag’N Water Dispens’R™  conveniently dispenses just the right amount of water allowing pets to lap directly out of the bottle. The collapsible Wag’N Travel Bowl  fits into a backpack, purse or glove compartment, making it easy to offer a pet water on-the-go.
Commune with nature. Places that allow pets are making a special accommodation and pet parents should not abuse the privilege. Pet parents should keep a few plastic bags handy and simply clean up after Fido or Fifi. Wag’N recommends pet parents keep a few bio-degradable Ickyboo™
 waste bags in a jacket pocket, secured to the leash or in the car.

Be prepared. Pet parents should take a Pet First Aid Class and have a Pet First Aid Kit available for emergencies. Wag’Ns Mayday Well-Fed™ and Skinny™ Pet First Aid kits  are easy to carry and contain items necessary to administer basic pet first aid.   Also, keep the pet’s information together.  When important pet information cannot be communicated due to parental impairment, critical pet care may be delayed or suspended. Wag’N Enterprises  created the new Wag’N Rover Respond’R® v2.0 Mobile Emergency Information Kit to provide pet parents with all the tools and documents
necessary in case of an emergency so that first responders can better assist pet owners and their pets.
Awareness and caution will keep tails wagging this holiday season. .