Instagram story viewer> @boonieflightproject> Posts

Boonie Flight Project

@boonieflightproject

19.4K

followers

798

following

📍Saipan + Guam ❤️ Boonie Dogs
an unfiltered look at island dogs 🐶✈️
not flying dogs right now.
✨catch me at @future.island.vet 🩺🐾

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

My last post brought a few questions about how we get dogs off-island, so I thought I’d revisit it with this video 🥰

we have tried everything in our power to encourage @united to reinstate pet shipping. Unfortunately, despite years of work, there’s been no movement on the issue.

So, we send dogs from here to Guam to Tokyo to Canada to their destination because cabotage prevents us from using a foreign airline between two U.S. ports - and we are part of the U.S. (just really far away!)

Thank goodness for creative, dedicated pet shippers who help us save these babies. There would have been so many more lives lost here, stranded, without our pet shipper @lisa__animal_travel_agent ❤️✈️

#booniedog #boonieflightproject #shelterdog #savetheboonies #unitedairlines taken in Saipan, Mariana Islands, USA by @boonieflightproject

1k

49

a year ago

Real talk - this is how we choose which dogs to save at the shelter here. The shelters on Saipan and Guam receive hundreds of dogs per month. On Saipan, we are lucky if any get adopted.. and on Guam, there are a handful of adopters - but still not enough.

We have to be as objective as possible when picking who to save. Why? That helps us save as many lives as we can.

Just think as if you are us.
You need to pick the dogs with the highest likelihood of adoption so that you can get them out of the shelter and into a home quickly, and then fill their kennel with another "desirable" dog. This is called shelter "flow through".

For example..
I "save" a small dog, a male pittie mix, and 3 fluffy adorable puppies that don't look alike from a litter of 8.

Would I personally rather save a scared, skinny tan boonie mama who needs love and all the puppies? Well, yea.

Does my friend want me to save a certain dog because they found it and brought it to the shelter? Yea.

But we don't have adopters for 8 puppies. And it's so hard to place mama dogs here. And the dog my friend found is a "plain" scared 6 month old puppy.

So we pick objectively.

When we don't pick objectively, we cause bottlenecks in shelter flow. Dogs who could have been adopted are put down because there are no empty adoption kennels. Save rates decrease. Euthanasia increases.

These are the tough decisions we must make. They suck, but this is reality.

#animalshelter #sheltercapacity #sheltereuthanasia #euthanasialist #shelterdog #dogshelter #dogrescue #dogs #puppies #puppiesofig

Picking puppies from euthanasia list at a dog shelter taken in Saipan, Mariana Islands, USA by @boonieflightproject

26k

928

2 years ago

We had such a lovely visit with visiting MARS Ambassadors - Dr. Erin O’Donnell and veterinary technician Allison Kwasek 🥰🎉

Forever grateful to @banfieldfoundation for sending us veterinarians and technicians over and over again. Our little island is far from the mainland, and it is hard (impossible) to find organizations willing to help. But @banfieldfoundation doesn’t blink an eye. Without them, veterinary care in the CNMI would look very different.. or maybe not exist at all.

THANK YOU! 🧡

#banfieldfoundation #volunteervet #vetmed #vettech taken in Saipan Humane Society by @boonieflightproject

145

4

2 days ago

omg I wish I had this leash when I was doing rescue work every single day. And handling freaked out dogs during spay/neuter clinics at @saipanhumanesociety 😅

Where has this been all my life!!!

I struggle with some basic things (like putting together an e-collar lolol) so I figured I would struggle with this leash. It has so many configurations. But I didn’t struggle!

It can also be used as a muzzle wrap.. cross-body/ waist leash (I use it for running).. and in a bunch of other ways.

I guess that is one perk of working for @humaneinnovations 🥰 the best animal handling equipment you can find.

Ps go check out their website & social media - I’ve been having the best time overhauling it 😍🎉

& if you wanna find the leash, look for the Rescue Pro Harness Leash ✨

#vetmed #sheltermed #dogrescuers #sliplead by @boonieflightproject

937

23

4 days ago

In early 2023, I started a nonprofit called Saipan Humane Society. The goal - bring low cost spay/neuter to a little U.S. island with no veterinarian. No vet = TONS of strays = LOTS of suffering 😭🐶❤️‍🩹

I joined forces with my bestie @ruby.m.yy . We did a small pop-up clinic at the local government dog shelter… and word got out😅😅

Suddenly there was a line out the door of people with pets in need. Hit by car, seizure, gunshot, GI illness, tick infestation, TVT, jaundice, broken limbs, crazy wounds, eyeballs falling out… 😵‍💫

We scaled up quickly, against all odds. As volunteers. Busting our butts. If you were a vet friend of mine in 2023, you probably got sent some pretty crazy messages from us 😅😂 Thanks for walking us through it all.

Things have improved SO MUCH.

Today we have our own clinic space! (Thanks @banfieldfoundation 🧡)

We have STAFF 🎉 and received TRAINING!

We are so much more organized than the clips you see here 🥰

But we still struggle a lot. We ARE a low-cost clinic on an island with no vet, after all🥲

Not enough staff.
Not enough resources.
Not enough time in the day.
Endless endless work.
Boundaries constantly crossed.
Emergencies never stop.

But we love it ❤️

➡️Want to help?
www.saipanhumanesociety.org/donate

#vetmed #vetschool #accesstocare #vetstudent #vetmedlife taken in Saipan, Mariana Islands, USA by @boonieflightproject

197

5

a month ago

A friend messaged me the other day. “Looks like two new dogs were dumped on our road”. ❤️‍🩹

They are so friendly. They’ve got collars.
And they’re female dogs. One looks like she recently had pups.

They can’t tell me their story, but I can guess it. Back when I was very involved with the local shelter, mama dogs were surrendered often - either alone, with puppies, or pregnant. 🥲🐶

It’s not convenient to own an unspayed female dog on Saipan - especially because most dogs live outside. That just means litter after litter of puppies. And saggy teats, which people also seem to hate (literally someone asked if we could remove them once when we spayed their dog).

✨“People should just get them spayed!” - many try. There’s no vet on island. I started a nonprofit clinic, @saipanhumanesociety , to help. But we don’t have resources to spay all the dogs.

✨“Are you just going to leave them on the streets?!” - yes. I’m not even there. I’m at vet school ( @future.island.vet ). But even if I was there.. I can’t just take home every street dog I see. That’s thousands of dogs. There’s no humane shelter and no rescue on island, no adopters.

The best case scenario for these girls would be to get spayed and released. But who is even going to do that?🤔

➡️ Want to help us help Saipan dogs?
www.Saipanhumanesociety.org/donate

Donations help keep our little clinic afloat. We bring in volunteer vets for spay/neuter, provide care for sick pets, and ensure animals have access to preventive care on a little island with no vet 🌴❤️

🐾Can’t donate? Like comment share repost save. This helps the post get seen - and somebody else might be able to help, too!

#streetdog #tnrsaveslives #abandoneddog #vetmed #dogrescuelife taken in Saipan, Mariana Islands, USA by @boonieflightproject

83

1

a month ago

Catching a street dog can be challenging 😅 but here is a great example of when it goes as smoothly as possible!🎉

This clip was from my visit to the island of Guam earlier this year. There I provided training in animal handling & capture for shelter staff and animal control 🐶🌴

Was the muzzle wrap necessary with this dog? 🤔 Probably not! But, I’m there to teach - not to catch. I like to demonstrate techniques and encourage students to practice skills when the stakes are lower. This prepares them to handle animals safely and effectively when situations get tricky 🥰

Ps - Notice how I’m covering the dog’s eyes as I carry him. This is an intentional way of reducing his stress by decreasing visual stimuli 🙈

✈️ Today I’m finishing up prepping for another trip - this time to Nepal. I’ll be working to protect red pandas through dog population management. Can’t wait to share the adventure with you! ✈️

#dogrescue #animalcontrol #streetdog #doghandling #dogbehavior taken in Guam, USA by @boonieflightproject

800

37

a month ago

I wanted to catch this mama dog so badly this summer on Saipan. Just before I left.. I got her (with the help of some neighborhood kids!).

She has been staying at @saipanhumanesociety to get healthy, and next month she will fly to her new home stateside ❤️✈️

Mama dogs have my HEART. They deserve the world.

Huge thank you to the generous people who donated to help her get home. Like so many dogs on island, there was NO other option for her. Fly or… 😭

Thank you.

#booniedog #boonieflightproject #rescuedog #streetdog taken in Saipan, Mariana Islands, USA by @boonieflightproject

141

4

a month ago

If you followed me last semester, you might remember me, and Cleo fighting over a heated blanket every single morning 🤣 it was pretty ridiculous. WELLL now she has her own 🎉🎉 hallelujah. It’s way softer than I expected than just the right size.

It’s still pretty toasty here in Washington at the moment but as soon as it starts to get chilly, this is going to be become a staple for us 🥶 My island dog HATES being cold (me too lol) 🌴🌺

Thanks so much for sending this for her, @ororo.wear !

Get yours ➡️ www.ororowear.com/collections/pets-collection

#ororo #dogblanket #dogmom by @boonieflightproject

103

6

a month ago

Never judge a dog by how they are at the shelter.

Shelters are stressful places - some more than others. When I met Cleo, she was in arguably one of the most stressful shelters in the country, the Saipan Dog Control shelter. With more than 95% of intakes being put down (or dying), the outlook is very bleak for any animal there.

Cleo wouldn’t even stand. She cowered when approached, peed on herself, displayed fearful nervous behavior.

But folks who follow @boonieflightproject fell in love with her from@my Ig stories so I bailed her out. Got her spayed. She was massively pregnant - I couldn’t let her recover at the shelter. She could die. So she came home with me.

I had been looking for a dog who could fill the void left by my heart dog Tasi. I had fostered sooo many.. but nobody clicked.

Until Cleo ❤️

So don’t believe what you see in the shelter. Bail them out. Give them a chance 🥹❤️

#shelterdog #rescuedog #rescuedogglowup #saveashelterdog taken in Washington by @boonieflightproject

276

9

a month ago

Doing social media for @humaneinnovations is pretty awesome because I stumble across videos like this 🤣 Who doesn’t love a good puppy rescue? I love them even more when it’s a Guam puppy, like this little one! 😍🌏

@humaneinnovations came out to Guam and Saipan earlier this year to train shelter staff, animal control, @saipanhumanesociety , & the community on animal handling / capture 🥰🐶

Puppies may be small but they can still be chompy, so it’s important to be cautious and use tools when necessary to get them out of tricky situations like this!

➡️ I’ll be posting content from all over the world on @humaneinnovations with tips on all sorts of things animal welfare related. If you’re involved in rescue, sheltering, or animal welfare in any capacity.. go check it out! 🎉

#puppyrescue #streetpuppy #saveapuppy #dogrescue taken in Guam by @boonieflightproject

197

2

2 months ago

PENNY UPDATE 🥰✈️❤️

She is home.

I met this dog in December. I was on winter break from vet school and itching to save a dog.. as usual. I went to the shelter. It’s a sad sad place. Most dogs are terrified or feral. But this one burst from her kennel to greet me and I noticed.. her leg was hanging off. Literally.

Shelter staff hadn’t noticed 😅😭

So I bailed her out. Took her to @saipanhumanesociety - the nonprofit clinic I founded. Not a shelter contrary to the name. But we do rehab a handful of dogs each year and she was one of the lucky ones.

A visiting @banfieldfoundation vet did her amputation.. and fell in love. This dog had soooo much love to give despite it all.

@vcacharities helped us fly her stateside.. and now she is home 🏠

Thank you @lisa__animal_travel_agent for helping us get this girl where she needed to be! And thank you @saipanhumanesociety for taking care of her so long.

Want to help? Visit @saipanhumanesociety and support our little clinic ❤️ taken in Saipan Humane Society by @boonieflightproject

447

18

2 months ago