Please donate if you’re able, but more importantly, read and share the information so World Pet Travel can’t do this to others.
We paid $6468 for the safe and careful transport from Costa Rica to the US. It took me almost a year to save that money, and for the last 7 months, the dogs have been well taken care of by my friends in Costa Rica.
The dogs did make it to us in the US but were without family or friends or what now looks like proper care for 7 days.
Now, WPT is charging us $4525 for their shortcomings and lack of follow-through. Their fine print allows them to do this.
We could use the help to pay off this new excessive debt, but mostly, we want to share our story so it can’t happen to others. PLEASE SHARE!
This next photo is how our dogs have always been treated. They get to lay on the furniture. They are also allowed to sleep in our bed. They are spoiled, never hit or abused in any way.
Since they were out of our care for 7 days to be transported because they are Pitbulls/pitbull mix…for which we are being charged an additional $4525 for a total cost of $11,000 to World Pet Travel… they now flinch when anyone reaches to pet them.
I don’t have proof, but it looks like someone beat them while they were being “boarded” enough to cause them to flinch.
Please donate to their GoFundMe at the link in the bio to help pay.
The Full Story:
Hello. We’re here to tell you a story that might prevent someone else from falling into the same predicament we find ourselves in and to ask for your assistance if you have it to give. Most of the photos are some of, but not all of, the injuries on Yoyo and Bosco.
Three years ago we moved to Costa Rica and used World Pet Travel to take our beloved dogs with us. We selected WPT because they had the best reviews and seemed to have the pets best interest in mind. Our boys are our babies, emotional support animals, and friends. We would never leave them behind. After two years in Costa Rica, we ran into some issues that depleted our funds and forced a move back to the US last fall.
We reached out to World Pet Travel to find out the cost to bring our boys home. It took a year to save up the cost of $6463 to bring them home. (This didn’t include our travel and other expenses). We were able to save it, paid in full and got everything in motion for October 4th 2023.
World Pet Travel assured us that they had everything in order and we would be able to meet our dogs in Houston, where we would drive them to St. Louis because they aren’t allowed on commercial airlines due to being pitbulls (this was the only reason we were using a pet travel company).
When I arrived in Costa Rica to help with the transport, October 5th and 6th I got each of the dogs their necessary treatments and their health certificates as directed by WPT. I thought everything was in order but received a message from WPT that there was a problem and the airline wasn’t going to transport the dogs because of their breed, but WPT was working on it and to be patient. I emailed the company owner who i worked with on the travel to Costa Rica. I was informed she was in Dubai and would reach out to me when she could but that she was aware of the difficulties we were having and would help. This was a Friday.
We are supposed to drive to San Jose Sunday, set the dogs off early Monday morning at the veterinarian to fly out Tuesday, and I’m flying out on Tuesday. WPT had set up a line of communication with the veterinarian who will board the dogs on Monday night and who would get the dogs to their flight Tuesday morning. I hear nothing from WPT after Friday when I’m told they directed us wrongly on the health certificates and the health certificates need to read “mixed breed” instead of “pitbull terrier mixed” but I’ve already paid for the certificates. WPT assures me that their vet in San Jose can fix it.
Once we arrived in San Jose on Sunday, I reach out to the vet to determine the drop off time for the dogs and the message is interrupted by WPT asking us to hold off on the drop off because the problem with the airline hasn’t been resolved. At this point I’m distraught. I can’t keep the boys in the hotel more than one night, my friends need to return to their farm in the south and my flight is leaving on Tuesday morning early. I hear nothing back from WPT until I message them Monday morning.
Monday morning comes and I’m put on hold again, told to be patient and they are working on it. No specifics are given other than they are having issues with the airline. They tell me that they are going to have to use a different airline with a possible cost increase. At noon on Monday in spite of no concrete plans but with the reassurance from WPT that they will get it all arranged so the dogs will arrive in Houston, because I don’t have any other options, we drop the dogs off at the veterinarian with only their favorite blankets to comfort them and lead to believe they would be there overnight at the most.
I get intermittent message from WPT saying things like “we haven’t forgotten you”, “we’re all working on it”, or “we’ll have a solution soon” the rest of Monday. They assure me that it is okay to fly to Houston. Finally they come back to me Monday night to say they had to find a different solution and the dogs would be flown into Miami and transported to our house by Saturday October 14th at no additional cost.
We change our arrangements and fly home from Houston with the reassurance from WPT that everything is is order and pictures of the dogs seeming content at the veterinarian in Costa Rica. Once home, on Thursday October 12th, we receive a message from WPT stating that there has been another problem. The dogs have been at the veterinarian for 3 days now and we are being told they are doing just fine (we find out later this was a lie). We are now told that the airline they switched to was to have a layover in Mexico and there was a concern about Mexican customs delaying their onward flight so they have once again found an alternative option. They are going to fly with the original airline (at the original rate) but that they are flying into Washington DC where they will be boarded over the weekend and then transported to our home by Tuesday October 17th by noon. This will have been 7 days the dogs have been separated from any people they consider family. The owner of WPT tells us she expected this based on the trouble going to Costa Rica that we had never heard about previously.
They are required to have additional vaccinations to be boarded but they are taking care of those and everything is now in order. We are not happy but just want our dogs home.
We get messages and pictures of the dogs in their crates and can tell by their blankets that they are in the wrong ones but can’t do anything about it. They send photos of the dogs being loaded in an aircraft. Almost 14 hours later we receive a message that they have arrived in DC, have been walked, fed and watered. We thank them and tell them how big a relief that is. After this we receive nothing further about the dogs until the transport company messages on Monday that she will deliver the dogs between 10am and noon on Tuesday. She messages again when they stop for the night in Indiana. At this point, nothing more is heard from WPT. Tuesday the dogs are delivered to our home at 10am. Still no word from WPT. The dogs arrived without any of their blankets, callous sores on their elbows, and scabs on their bellies from being on concrete and wood for over a week. One of the crates has a different dogs name on it so they weren’t built new for our dogs as we were lead to believe from the original invoice and cost of the crates ($550-750 each).
I message them and let them know the dogs arrived and all, that they waive any additional costs due to the issues and problems on their end. I receive and email response that said they are glad the dogs are home but they are sorry they are unable to waive the additional costs and send me an invoice for $4525. She send pictures of a damaged wall and a chewed board in a crate. Apparently the dogs chewed up a wall at the vet because they were left in a room unattended. There were new health certificates, vaccinations, transport fees, boarding fees, etc etc etc. She sends me a snippet from the terms and conditions that indicate they could have canceled our transport at any time and we are liable for the fees and costs even without advance notice.
We would love any help you can give to pay off these exorbitant fees but mostly we don’t want this to happen to anyone else in the future.
BONUS PIC
Jax the Pitbull getting to see mom in Costa Rica before the travels began.
