Calling All Creatures Presents PadsPass: Making Pet Travel Safer

I’m excited to welcome Lauren Anders Brown, Founder of PadsPass, to the show for an eye-opening conversation about making pet travel safer, easier, and less stressful for everyone.

Join us as we explore the story behind PadsPass, the challenges of global pet-travel regulations, and how Lauren’s mission is preventing the heartbreaking mistakes that happen all too often.

Don’t miss this important episode for pet parents, travelers, and animal lovers alike!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good evening everybody, and welcome to Calling Off Creatures and
I am your host, Laurie, which I hope most of
my listeners that are faithful no by now. But tonight
we're going to discuss a really helpful topic, I should say,
about traveling with your pets and some of the things

(00:21):
that you're going to need and some of the things
that you should know about when you travel with your pets.
I have Lauren Anderson Brown on with me, and she
is the CEO and founder of Pad's Pass, and she's
going to give us all sorts of great information about
this app and stuff that she came up with and

(00:42):
that helps you guys with your travels and stuff like that. So, Lauren,
thank you so much for being on the podcast to
talk about this tonight. I think it's a really good
topic to talk about.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thanks, Laurien. I'm so happy to be here, and it's
a topic that's obviously very close and meaningful to my heart.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Right yeah, I know. Well, you can tell us about
what got you going with us here in just a second.
But for the listeners that are kind of maybe new
to you and your work, could you share a little
bit about your background and what led you into the
world of storytelling and global travel and things like that.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Absolutely. So I grew up around the film industry a
studio in New York specifically, and I always wanted to
work with cameras. I loved looking behind a lens. I
learned how to load film. I mean, I would get coffee,
I would do anything I could to try and kind
of be around cameras. I did black life photography and

(01:40):
then studied film, and then as soon as I got
out of college, I then joined the Union, started working
on TV shows and future films and movies, and I
spent a lot of time on set, so I knew
a lot of the different roles really well and realized
that I felt like I didn't want to be on
set anymore. Actually, I wanted to take what I learned
and go into the field and and film real stories documentaries,

(02:04):
and so then I ended up landing kind of in
this UH niche of doing global health and human rights
all over the world in many different countries. I did
a documentary with a tool of LAWANDHI on the UH
surgical Safety Checklist implementation around the world, which is kind
of crazy to think that we didn't have a standard
for doing surgery around the world. Before then, everyone would

(02:27):
just do it differently, and it was interesting going. You know,
I've worked for a lot of different organizations like United
Nations and other small charities since then, and so travel
has always been a huge part of my career, in
my life and my livelihood. And then in addition to that,
you know, I ended up in the relationship overseas with
someone in the UK, and so making that work at

(02:51):
first had a lot of travel in it. And amongst
all of that was my dog was my anchor and
uh her name was Patting and she was a brown
and white King Charles Cavalier that uh I was actually
inspired to to try and find she was adopted. But
I I fat first fell in love with Cavaliers when

(03:11):
I was on the set of uh Sex and the
City and Charlotte's dog was a brown and went let him.
Its name was Penny, and I got to meet Penny's handler,
and I got to spend a whole day with Penny
asleep on my lap, and I just knew in that moment,
like when I can have a dog, this is a
job I'm gonna have. And so then I sought out
different cavaliers that needed adoption. I found my dog, drove

(03:34):
seven hours to pick her up cause I couldn't fly
at the time. This was before I started traveling with
a dog. And then UH, I traveled with Paddington for
ten years and we went to nine different countries and
on seventy five flights, and I was one of those
people that travels with a dog before Charlie was a
dog was known or cool. UH. I would camp out

(03:57):
of the USA offered at JFK if anyone remembers in
those were around, is to try and get my paperwork
endorsed and my appointments before I would travel. And one
of those semni five flights, we I booked her vet
appointment too close to our arrival time cause we were
going to the UK, and then she received the wrong

(04:18):
d wormer from the veterinarian even though I asked for
a different one, and the airport wrongly approved all of it,
and when we landed they rescinded it and they took
her from me. And that was the moment when I
just realized how much I was trying to manage on
my own with with pet travel, with animal travel, UH,

(04:41):
it's a lot and and that it's it's a broken
system of documents and papers and errors and human errors,
and you know, the pets are the perfect ones, and
and I really wanted to try and do something to
change that.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Well, mm, I'm glad you know that you came up
with this idea to you know, change all that stuff.
I'm sorry all of that happened to you. Like I
was saying before we started, I did animal control and stuff.
And that's why I was so interested in having you
on to talk about this, because you'd be amazed at

(05:18):
how many people, well don't realize all of the things
and requirements you have to go through in order to
travel with your pets to other countries or even here
in the States to Hawaii, because they have a lot
of requirements and things like that as well. And a

(05:39):
lot of people would either you know, relinquish their animals
to the shelter because you know, they didn't get everything
done in time, or just because they a good part
of them I guess probably didn't even want to take
their animals with them, which always amazed me because I
would never go anywhere or do anything, you know, without
my animals with me. And so yeah, so I was

(06:02):
so happy to be able to have you on and
talk about this to kind of let people know you
know about what you went through and why you decided
to start this UH pads pass out because I think
it's a really great thing for people to have UH
something like this to be able to use for their
travel and.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Absolutely and you never know when you're gonna travel, Lori,
I mean, I think you brought up some really good
points that yes, I I am. I fall into the
category of someone who travels constantly with their dog. I
just got some paperwork done this morning for a trift
that we I'm going on with my dog on Saturday.
But for some people it's it's a maybe a once

(06:43):
in a lifetime move with with an animal. And you
know right now I'm based on a small island as well.
You mentioned why I'm actually in Bermuda. In Bermuda, we
have pretty strict UH import uh regulations and they're not impossible,
but they're strict. You have to at least two rape shots.
I've speak even in a certain period of time, depending

(07:05):
upon the rabies endemic levels of where you're coming from.
And I know that all sounds really like WHOA, that's
a lot to take in right, and it is. It
is a lot to take in, and that's why, like,
as humans, we shouldn't do that. That's why we should
harness technology to do that for us. And we will
get things wrong. We are human, and that's okay, we're fallible,

(07:25):
but like technology doesn't if we instruct it in the
right ways and set up the right boundaries for it,
and it can then help you make better decisions when
it comes to, oh, I have to move off island,
can I take my animal with me? Or I have
to move off or my my animal is really sick
and actually it needs more help and I have to
like meddi back out. Can I actually return with my animal? Right?

(07:46):
And there's all these instances where, you know, animals are
becoming like the human animal bond is amazing, and we're
becoming more and more reliant on them as part of
our ecosystem, as part of our family, and the thought
of being separated, and for many of us is just horrifying.
So many people don't know where to start ory. You know.
Sometimes yes, it's the fact that that they don't want

(08:09):
to go through the effort once they figure out what
it is. But for some people they're just I don't
I didn't even think that was possible, right, And so
that's what that's one of the huge inspirations for me
is that you know, we make a like our software
ends up making a customized checklist, custom to your animal,
so you're not looking at like general advice that could

(08:29):
be confusing and difficult to take in an understand or
you know what the next step is or what you
exactly have to do, Like all of that is laid
out Baseball and new animal specific health. When you create
a padposs account, want you upgrade the digital cut passport
so it holds it's a place where like health, identity,
and travel all come together and collide and take this
really emotionally charged moment in time for some people and

(08:53):
just make it calm, easy and stress free. And you know,
as someone who has lived with the chaos to travel
traveling with an animal for thirteen years, I can say
thirteen years in it is still stressful every time. I mean,
although it is getting easier using the software, because even
in the last year, I've seen such changes with the

(09:16):
way people receive it, right, and it is kind of
magical to see that. As the founder, I'm not gonna lie,
but like you know, last Thanksgiving when I went away,
I had so once again camp out in the veterinarian's office,
who was like, Nope, absolutely not this newfound software thing,
not doing it, et cetera, et cetera. They eventually did,
but you know it took a lot of time, right,

(09:38):
I had to readbook a veterinary appointment over Thanksgiving to
a different practice I'd never been to before, didn't preface them,
and I was like, right, this is either going to
cost me a ton of money for them to use
my software or take a ton of time like it
has before. Lauri, how long do you think I was
in and out of that that appointment? You've been around
animals like your whole career, right, So like, how long

(09:59):
on app which is your normal vet appointment?

Speaker 1 (10:02):
You would say, well, I guess on average, if they
don't have any type of an emergency. I know with
my dog, I am probably usually in for a normal
vet appointment, it might take half hour, forty five minutes.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
I was in and out in fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
That's awesome, That is really awesome.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
They completed an air free health certificate for Bermuda, and
then that was on a Saturday and Monday morning it
was approved.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
That is awesome. Now I have to ask, do you
still have Paddington or a different dog now that you
travel with I have.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
A different dog now. I did get Paddington back after
that episode, and she definitely helped to shape the beginning
and the origins of pads past. That's actually her nickname
was pad So not only is the pot of the
foot of an animal in the name, but her name
is as well. But now I have Peru, and Prue

(10:57):
has taught me a whole different way of traveling carew.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
He's a he's a boy dog. He's also a cavalier.
But he's actually helps me learn kind of how important
carrier training is, uh huh, how different animals can react
differently to different carriers, and how not one carrier is
like the standard or like right for every animal. Paddington

(11:22):
loved one kind of carrier. She was obsessed with it, so.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Happy with it, so easy. Peru did not care for
that carrier. He it was too too bright, too light,
too anxious. He likes like a cozier, even though this
one is slightly smaller that he likes now and he
likes it so much, Laurie. Sometimes he can get a
bit obsessed with it when we travel. That's when we

(11:46):
go in and ask for the private screening at USA
on those days when he's like, I don't want to
get out of this carrier. I love it too much.
So I think, I think the wonderful thing is I've
I've had an amazing spectrum of like super easy pet travel.
It's a super difficult pet travel over the years. And
I think that that's something else that I love about

(12:07):
what I do is I'm now kind of digitizing all
of that data and information and lived experience into paths
paths so people know because honestly, some of the information
we go to the Facebook groups and we can ask
in the forums and everything like that. But there's so
many opinions and it could be so difficult to filter
it down just a noise and to look for the signal, right,

(12:29):
like the signal of just tell me what I need,
tell me what I need, what my dog needs for
this trip on these dates, for this destination. That's all
I want, and that's what all the pet parents want
in these groups, right. But everyone has a different opinion
and every some people have great advice and guidance and
some don't, and it can be really difficult to sift

(12:52):
through that and to know where is the source of
truth right, And it doesn't help that government websites, airlines,
other transportation providers, and then you know, all these different
websites have all these different places of information and none
of it is in one place. And that has been
one of the biggest accomplishments PASLASS is done, is pulling

(13:14):
together these dynamics, easy to change, accurate travel requirements that
can be you know, can programmed in according to like
start an end dates, all the different things that go
into pet travel, Like we've figured it out to the
tea when it comes to all the different things you'd
have to think of from import, export, health and transportation perspective,

(13:37):
and it's it's pretty I don't know, it's pretty incredible.
I'm still kind of amazed at some of the things
I can I can program into it. I'm like, can
I do this? Yes, I can? And if it's not there,
our dev team is then like on it and builds
it out for the next week, which is pretty cool too.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
So so would you say that that's probably one of
the biggest problems you've seen you know with the pet
traveling and stuff that wasn't really getting solved effectively was
all the different you mentioned, you know, a lot of
the different changes, and that nobody actually has kind of
the same information across the board between each other and

(14:14):
stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yes, one hundred times over, Laurie. And also they don't
even have the same information within their one company. I
can understand any tree or they're like the information. I mean,
sometimes we're testing things out ourselves within an airline. So
like we, for an example, we had a VIPP so
we have very important pet parents and they have a

(14:37):
slightly higher level of service where we do kind of
more hands on customer service for them, and they wanted
to go on a train. They wanted to see if
they could fly with their dog out of the UK
to Denmark and maybe can fly out of the UK
you fly in with a pet, and so we're like, okay,
let's look to see what's there. So go to an

(14:58):
airline that says all pets can fly out. You ask
the chatbot, yep, it can they can fly out you
as specifically from the UK? Yes, the chatbot says, again
from the UK, there's still not enough on there for
us to fully believe it, or my team members to
fully believe it. So one of my team members goes
by the refundable ticket then try to add the pet
and guess what you can oh, jeez, and so's it's.

(15:23):
And you can ask you can ask chat to bet,
you can ask any of the llns, you know, if
there's not one specific in that sense, but they would
say the exact same thing that everything we got from
that that airlines information. And so this goes just back
to the fact that this information is actually so niche
and sometimes so difficult that not even one provider can

(15:45):
be consistent with the accurate information for everything.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
They do or they don't offer, right, right, I mean,
that's crazy that it's so I mean, even within the
same company. But you know what, I understand that because
I have worked for several different governments over the years
local I have a worked state, but I've worked for
several different and it's it's kind of the same thing.
You just never really I mean, it's always kind of different.

(16:09):
You really never know all the time. But yeah, I
can understand how that would be, you know, quite the
problem when not even the uh uh, you know, airline
itself is telling you different things, and and you're looking
at things and it says, oh, yeah, you can do this,
but then you can't. I know, my my boss actually
kind of encountered a little bit of that. She had

(16:30):
she was seeing someone from the UK and she lives
here in the States, and she had gone to see
him and then he was gonna come over here, and
it was kind of during that COVID time, and you know,
and trying to figure out what he had to do
or she had to do go there and him to
come here. It was crazy because it would say one
thing on the website, but they'd call and find something
else out. So I mean, you know, they do it
for people. I couldn't just imagine the horror for a pet.

(16:54):
But yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
But so and animost animals can carry different diseases in humans, right,
Like I do try and help people understand that have
never traveled with a pet. It's like, do you remember
what it was like during COVID, Like your example is great,
but that is the closest thing some people will ever
understand to what it's like trying to understand all the
different rules and all the different you know, if this,
then that I mean, that is the that is that

(17:18):
is what pet travel is. It is trying to take
all of that into account and then customizing it for
your pet, for your travel schedule and knowing if you
can even take a trip or not, and how to
and who to take that trip with. And that's one
of the things that we make so easy. Right So
in pat fast you go to plan a trip, you
go in right now, we do we offer we're adding

(17:39):
features all the time. Right now we're just focusing on
in cabin animal travels. So you can put in your
two different airport destinations. It shows you all the different
airline options that are possible, and then when you select it,
it gives you not only that airline carriers requirements and
steps to complete in order to add your pet and
to make sure you're compliant, but then also the destiny,

(18:00):
right and everything that's customed to that destination that's also
according to your pet, and also considering your origin where
you're coming from. Right, these are all things that you know,
we don't think, uh, we we have our passport, we
look to see if it if our if the country
accepts it, and then we go. You know, it doesn't
matter kind of what what a countries have you been

(18:21):
in the last six months? Sometimes sometimes it does, but
you know, and then what diseases might you have on you?
Kind of a thing, right, and you know, cause there's
there's there's biodiversity that asks to be protecting places. I
totally get it. I'm you know, if anything, I love
what we're building because it just it makes it so
much easier and understandable for people. And where I'm based
right now and in our first big market, Bermuda, we

(18:44):
don't have tics. We don't have ticks here. So, like
one of the requirements to to travel back into Bermunia,
which sometimes can be difficult for people to to kind
of understand, is that they have to have an external
parasite treatment applied by a veterinarian before you come back.
Like you can't just do it yourself. And that's because

(19:04):
we don't want ticks here, right, we don't have'm here.
We don't want them here, and so these things are
really important. You know. It's not about making the poles,
you know, when it comes to pet travel, it's kind
of just it's making it's clearing through the forest. Right,
It's like there's there's so much to try and get

(19:26):
through and understand, but people want to do it how.
I'm curious you, Laurie, if you had to guess how
many cats do you think flew in the US last year?

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Oh my god, cats that flew in the US last year.
I'm actually gonna go with a well, I don't know
if I want to go with a lower number or
a higher number, but I'm gonna just because I know
how people, especially with cats. It's worse than they are
with dogs. And it's amazing to me that pe people

(20:00):
will like relinquish a cant when they're probably I would
think an easier one to take with you in a
carrier than a dog. But I'm gonna say five six hundred.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Maybe thirty million cats.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Oh my god, I was way low. That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Fifteen million dogs flew three times or more. Those are
the latest numbers from Apple last year.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Good gosh, Oh my gosh. I mean that's a lot
of animals that are going flying around the you know,
different countries and within the US and all of that's crazy.
That's a lot of animals and pets flying. So, oh
my gosh, I was way low. I really wouldn't have
thought about that many, But you know. Then I guess

(20:44):
I'm not really thinking about how you know, worldwide, I've
kind of stuck here.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
But you.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
Oh, that was just in the US.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
No, we haven't had those numbers before. You know. It's like,
I think this is just because I've been doing this
for so long. And then I started to see more
and more people be more present at the places that
I was at that I started to realize, Okay, there's
a market here, Like more people are doing I'm not
the weird person anymore. That's kind of you know, camping
out the USBA office. Like there's more people that are

(21:18):
asking and wanting to do this, you know, and like
even in its short version of like the patsass has
been around for two years, right, but like we didn't
have the numbers when we started. It was more like
we had to try and dig for them and look
for them, and like we knew this was an issue,
but we didn't have the sensible data like that. And
now that it's here, it's even bigger than we thought

(21:40):
it was.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
I guess, my good grief, that's crazy. But you know,
and I got to stop because we keep saying pads
pass and talking about it, but there might be quite
a few listeners out there that haven't actually heard of
pads pass, because, like you said, it's been around for
a couple of years, but it's still fairly new. So
why don't you just real quick go out ahead and
tell us what pads pass actually is and how it

(22:04):
works for pet owners.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Absolutely, that's thank you so much for that, Lori. So
if pads pass is an app, you can download in
the App Store or Google Play. When you download it,
you get to experience the free version of it, which
is called our pad past pet ID that allows you
to put your microchip number in, upload some documents like
basic things in that sense, at a photo of your pet.
And then when you get ready to travel or you

(22:28):
want to travel, or you get told you have to
move for example, we talked about that before we locate,
you can upgrade to our subscription called the Digital Pet Passport.
And what the Digital Pet Passport does is it takes
your animals verified health information. So when you upload those documents,
we actually ask the that marian who administered either the

(22:49):
vaccine or the treatment or scan the microchip to verify
that they did so, and that information gets held in
there that's verified and those it gets codified by AI,
and I know that sounds really complex, but what it
does is it takes these paper documents that you've been
carrying around or you've had, makes them digital and then
takes that information and when you go to then start

(23:10):
to plan your trip, tells you exactly what you need
to be able to make that trip according to your
pets information. And that's why that is really important. You
could start using the trip planner instantly. You might see
a lot of red if you did that, depending upon
where you want to go to, so you'd have to
see the steps you have did you to make all
the requirements green. But it shows you not only country

(23:32):
import requirements, it shows you if your country that you're
leaving has any export requirements. It also shows you your
transportation provider's requirements. So right now past Past focuses on
in cabin airline travel within the US Canada. We also
include Puerto Rico and Bermuda, where I'm based right now,
and so I've been working on this from Bermuda for

(23:53):
the last couple of years. I was part of the
Accelerator program here. We've been prototyping it with government and
we've had a hundred percent success rates so far using
what we have is the help Certificate Generator for Bermuda,
and that is the last step when you want to
travel to Bermuda to be able to enter, you just
have to you have to have a bed appointment. And honestly, veterinarians,

(24:15):
my heart goes out to them because they went to
school to care for animals. They didn't go to school
to fill out documentation. And so, you know, it's some
of the stresses and the struggles that I've had over
the thirteen years of traveling with an animal is that
the veterinarians can be resistant to it because it's just
stuff that they they didn't study. It's more time that
they're taken away from giving urgent care to animals that

(24:39):
really need it. And they don't wanna get it wrong,
you know at the end of the day. And so
we've built what we built this as part of padfast
is a way to fill out this information without any errors.
There's all kinds of safety checks in place. It explains
everything for them super easily in that checklist. And as
I described at the beginning of the show, the last
time I just used it, the vetinarian was able to

(24:59):
use in fifteen minutes when I was out the door,
so that there's a ton of time for them.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
That's awesome because I was actually going to ask, you know,
how the veterinarians and clinics and stuff are responding to
PADS passed so far, but it sounds like they're I'm
you know, if I could do something like that as
a veterinarian, I'd be happy with it absolutely.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
You know, veterinarians are allies. So when you sign up
and become a verified vetinarian practice with padspath, it's absolutely
free for the veterinarian when you subscribe to the digital
of that passport for the travel, that's you know, I'm
the pet parent. That cost is with them. But for
our veterinarians it's absolutely free because we understand the burden

(25:39):
that they've carried for all these years when it comes
to pet travel, and there's just more and more pets traveling.
As we said, there's more and more requests that are
out there, and so we want to we want to
help them support them in this and like and make
it as easy for them as possible, and like really
you know, give them the confidence when it comes to understanding,
like one of their client's needs when it comes to

(26:01):
pet travel, like we take care of the travel questions
and they just take care of the verification of the
existing documents that they already did. So the RABY certificates
any kind of Megrigit scans or treatments, you know, or
lefto Bordtella And honestly, Laurie, sometimes, you know, like we
talked about always trying to help animals go, especially ones

(26:23):
that might get left behind or adopted out, but not
every trip is made for every pet, and so sometimes
animals have to say it shelters, not shelters, boarding facilities,
and or dog hotels, pet hotels. You get the whole
array of different options nowadays, right, and need to make

(26:45):
sure animal's health is okay for that too, And this
is just a great way to keep all that information
in one place and not have to, like, you know,
go through your emails or gosh, how many times even
me having made this software, have I been asked for
a PDF of some and I'm like, uh, I haven't
his last heart one test? Yeah, I have that somewhere.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Where right exactly. It's like, yeah, I know, I really do,
you know. And it's funny because you know, and we've
talked about, you know a little bit too about how
the pet travel rules are varying, you know, from country
to country, and actually sometimes quite a bit they vary.
So with that being said, how does Paths Pass stay

(27:29):
up to date and help prevent mistakes that could happen.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
That's a really great question. So we've started with our
FU jurisdictions to start, and we add them on as
we can battle test them. And what battle testing looks
like sometimes it's it is actually physically going to the place.
All the places that we have right now currently we've
all tried and tested with Past Pass. They're completely one
hundred percent battle tested. And the reason for that, Laurie,

(27:56):
is because there's sometimes information and UH like specifically when
it comes to going to a different UH country than
the government requirements, the information could be extremely scattered, UH
when it comes to what you have to do with
an animal when you're arriving and also when you're leaving
MM And so what we've built into pads past is

(28:17):
kind of basically anything we've tried and tested ourselves for
now when we're going to be continuing that. So we've
this year we've tested out a few different jurisdictions. A
great example is Barbados, mkay, and I studied, you know,
I had everything down, including the heartworm test that I
just mentioned. Barbados is actually probably the hardest country I've
been to, believe it or not. So it got all

(28:39):
the requirements done, including a customs clearance officer that I
had to smit the paperwork only your half and I
was there. And then as soon as I landed and
the veterinarian cleared everything at the airport, the customs officer goes, oh,
so when are you leaving, and I was like someday,
and he's got right, so you have to do your

(29:00):
exit paperwork tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
It's gone.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Like I had been in closed communication with the government
vet who never once mentioned exit paperwork, and I was
just like, no, you can't be right, Like I don't
need to do the exit paperwork, you know. And anyway,
I had to do the import paperwork for Bermuda, so
I did it at the same time, but it meant
I also had to go back to a different place

(29:28):
to get a red stamp on this one piece of paper.
And Laurie, I was so ready to show up at
the airport and be like They're never going to ask
me to this piece of paper. No one's going to
care about this piece of paper. This was the biggest
waste of time, right, Laurie. The only thing they asked
me for at the airport was that piece of paper
stamp on it, and I got after it three times.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
And literally the night before I went to go and
chase around to get that red stamp on it, I
had messaged the government vent to say do I really
need this? And she's like, yes, you really need this,
And I was like, do you think it would have
been helpful to tell me this?

Speaker 1 (30:04):
We're not kidding. You really need this one piece of paper.
Forget the rest. We just need that one exactly.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
So adding the jurisdiction means we need to battle fest
that sometimes it means that actually going and living it
out because of reasons like this depends on the country
in the situation. But we also, you know, we're looking
to kind of bring Padfast champions on board.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
With us too.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
So there's if there's roots or destinations that people want,
I'd say, if you subscribe to the Digital pot passport,
reach out to us, we want to then add those
those different destinations for you and love to trial them
with you. As we're building this technology because it's really
exciting and dynamic. We can make adjustments for those important
those export things, like I said. And the best way

(30:50):
we learn, like we love learning, the best way we
learn is by doing right.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
And if you have people that can help you out
by so you know, submitting their information and stuff like that,
like you said, for these different jurisdictions and and countries
and stuff like that. Oh my gosh, what a big
help that would be for you guys to get that
information and and maybe not have to go through all
of that yourselves to figure it out. So that would
be And Laurie.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
I just learned there's a whole other layer of There's
there's the customs requirement, you know, right, so there's not
just the government health requirement. But then there's the and
and this is part of the hard part that you know,
pets are still considered property, right yep, when you're traveling,
so it doesn't always come up when it's a a
movement of a personal pet. But every now and then, yes,

(31:36):
every country has its own rules they can they can
institute that at any point in time. Also, the other
big thing that we didn't talk about is that disease
endemic levels can change at any point time, and so
we always have to be ready to change and adjust
for that too. And so we've a we have an
amazing team. We have a v two veterinarians working with us,

(31:57):
and also just uh people that generally care. They're involved
with some of the andal health organizations that that we're
a part of, and so just we read those reports,
we get those daily, those daily digests. To be able
to be like, oh okay, interesting, screw worm is becoming
a bit more threatening in Mexico. Let's watch to see
how they handle domestic pets still when it comes to that,

(32:18):
because right now peraps Paths for anyone who doesn't know,
only takes dogs and cats. Sorry to the other animals
at the moment, but that's all we're able to accommodate
right now.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
You know, if you're playing with a bird or a
lizard or something like that, I guess you know, I
could understand that could be a really big challenge. I mean,
especially the birds because of different I mean well, like well,
dogs and cats, birds have all, you know, different diseases
and things like that, and they could bring them into
other places. I mean, we just had a big thing

(32:53):
going on, you know, with chickens, with the avian you know,
the bird flew and stuff like that. So I mean it, Yeah, Laurie, I.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Still get the I still get the alerts for of
it avian flu. So it's still out there.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
I definitely feel for the birds right now. It's hard.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, So in in building this tool that you've been
building for pet travel, what do you what would you
say has been the biggest challenge for you guys in
building it?

Speaker 2 (33:25):
I think.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
I'd say just waiting through all the crazy bureaucratic stuff
that you got to know.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yeah, I mean, and so we're we've built a platform
that brings together all of these requirements and all of
these different you know, user groups, if you want to
say that, and it's a lot to keep all the
user groups engaged and and uh, you know, stay allied
with them. Right What the messaging that vet marians want

(33:57):
to we need to hear is different to the pet
parents and it's different to the government. It's not that
they all don't like they all love paths past, but
just trying to kind of continue the momentum of it
all can be challenging in that sense of trying to
kind of keep up with everyone. That's one problem when
you build one platform for so many different groups, I

(34:19):
would say, Uh, another is kind of how emotional this
problem can be for people like the pet parents specifically.
You know, it's a really stressful thing to travel, and
it's even way more stressful to travel with your pet.
I still don't breathe out until I'm kind of like
on solid ground of my destination where I'm going to

(34:40):
when I do that last check, especially after what happened
to me, right, And uh, you know, I think some
of the other things is that there's just so many
requirements to to overcome that it at times it can

(35:00):
feel it can feel overwhelming. But also I think, like
if you like, the way we've broken it down is
really helpful and just getting people to kind of trust
in that tool and to try it out, Like, I
really hope people can download the app, and if people, oh, Laurie,
this is a good time, can I share about the

(35:21):
the offer we're making for anyone who's listening today, Yeah,
download and.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
We go ahead. Pet Passport, Yeah, God, put it out there.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
We need more users and we'd love to have more
users from calling Calling Oak Creatures. So we are offering
to anyone who's listening today that subscribes to the Digital
pet Passport before the end of this year fifty dollars
off so you can use the coupon code Calling Creatures fifty.
Use our link on our website padspass dot com to

(35:52):
check out and put in the coupon code there and
we'll be able to upgradate your app that way. So
if you need to, you can also download it from
the app store, where you're not to be able to
use the coupon code there, So you need to go
to our website pathspass dot com, navigate to the Digital
pep Passport page sign up for the subscription of the
Digital Pet Passport. It's a yearly subscription of two forty

(36:14):
nine ninety nine, but you get it for under two
hundred dollars for listening today if you put in the
fops on code and you sign up before the twenty
twenty six when we're going to be adding more jurisdictions.
We're gonna have more features that are coming, and I'm
just really excited to kind of build this platform out
more with more of our users. So we need the

(36:35):
users to be able to tell us where do you
want to go next? Where should we put our focus
on what airlines or what you know, what mods of
transportation do you want? And the best way you can
do that is if you sign up and you get
in touch with us.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Perfect yeah, so, and I will definitely put that out
on the Facebook page for you guys as well to
get that discount, because if you travel especially, I mean
if you travel even even once or twice with your pets,
I really think that this app would be so worth
it because it's gonna make your life so much easier

(37:13):
being able to have all your stuff in one place
digitally where you can just I mean, if you can
pull it up on your phone and go, hey it's
right here, or you know, you're whatever, you know, it
would be so much easier. Then Oh, I've got an
envelope full of paperwork here that I can show you.
You know, that would that's I know, believe me, I
know traveling and paperwork.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
So I just I just got my dogs because you know,
we are going digital, but some places still require paper. Right,
So we're traveling on Saturday. We just had to get
paper done today and Laurie, my folder literally broke. He's
only three years old and we have so many papers
that it's already it already broke. So I have to
get a new.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Pall there my gown.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
I mean, hopefully I can just digitize everything. But it's
a lot there to digitize his whole travel, his street.
But yeah, it's a lot. And I have to say,
you know, there's a huge benefit even if you don't
travel that much, because you can store up to five
pets health information in the one place. You can have
it verified. Like I said, for anyone who rents a

(38:15):
home or has you know, requirements maybe by your building
or management, you can show that your animalism could help
that way by having all the verified documents one place.
So even if you don't travel, you can sell have
your documents verified, and even just one relocation move pays
for itself. Because pet travel consultants, that is a whole
industry now, and they are not they're not inexpensive because

(38:39):
pet travel is in general quite expensive, right, I mean,
just for anyone who doesn't know, like a pet and cabins,
you can range from ninety five dollars to two hundred dollars,
and that's just for a small pet to go at
your feet underneath. Right. A pet travel consultant starts at
three hundred dollars an hour, So we priced it to

(39:01):
the point where you can plan as unlimited trips. You
can for up to five pets and upload as many
documents as you want to shore that you need to
in there well onboard your vetinary practice for you and
you get all that for the year plus you're going
to get you'll get to lock in the rate. As
we had more destinations, the price is going to go up.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
You know, I'm going to be honest. I'm going to
throw this out to my service dog teams and our
organization that I trained for, because you know, some of
our teams, you know, they fly and that's why they're
getting you know, they're getting their dogs so they have
those to fly. It would probably make their life so
much easier and less anxiety if they were able to

(39:41):
have something like this, to have those documents and stuff handy,
you know, when they're going into the airports to travel.
I mean, because some of them are traveling for holidays.
Even as we speak, I've got a couple of teams
that are going away for the holidays. So I mean,
so much less anxiety if they knew they had all
of this stuff available with the health records and stuff

(40:02):
like that, where they could just go, hey, it's right here,
let me show you, you know, because I mean it's
a bit when you you know, have to go through
airport security and all that stuff and have all that paperwork.
So I think it would be great to I'm going
to put this out there for those guys so that
they know about it as well in case they're interesting in,
you know, getting it. But I also wanted to ask

(40:24):
real quick, what, yeah, do you think as we've been
talking about all this obviously, I think I kind of
know some of the more common mistakes that people make
when they're going to travel with their pets, especially going internationally.
What what do you kind of think is the most
common mistakes that people are making when they're traveling with

(40:45):
their pets. And would you have do you have any
kind of advice you could maybe give to someone who's
traveling with their pet for the first time?

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Those are great questions. Yeah, so most common travel mistakes
I see people assume that the rules are the same
everywhere here in Bermuda. I can't tell you how many
airline staff members we've spoken to who have had to
turn people around because they didn't realize that the animal
needed an import permit, They didn't realize the animal needed

(41:14):
the tick treatment. They didn't realize like they just thought
they could. They literally had to get back on the
plane that went that went back off island because there's
no quarantine here. So just assuming that you go from
one state to the next, that everything's gonna be okay,
or that you're gonna cross over and then you're gonna
be able to return, there's another big issue because if
you come from a rabies free jurisdiction like where we

(41:35):
are right now or where I am right now in Bermuda,
and you go to a place where Raby's is considered endemic,
which is even considered in the US, then if you
don't have your rabies vaccines in order, it's a seven
month separation from your animal. Your animal is a safe
stateside for seven months, and you have to board it

(41:56):
somewhere and there's no exception the flights before confirming whether
a pet can travel on it, whether there's room for it,
just assuming you can throw your pet on there, that's
that's a big issue thinking that your your raby vaccines
are good just because you gave it to them. They
could be expired, they could be the wrong kind. Going

(42:16):
to the Facebook groups, I love, love a good Facebook
group chat, but like, honestly, there's a lot of struggle,
Like there's a lot of misinformation out there, Yes there is, yeah,
and just underestimating how early you need to start with this,
because if you've never traveled with your pet, you've got
to start way earlier than you think, or at least

(42:38):
start thinking about it and planning setting up your account.
We recommend starting, you know, at least a month, like
subscribing to the digital pet paths, where at least a
month before you want to travel, because for most places
you can probably get things in order if you need
to buy them. But your vaccine, you get an animal vaccinated,
it needs to wait before it can actually be considered

(42:59):
active in that's just standard. That's sometimes not even according
to different jurisdictions, like you shouldn't put that pressure on
your animal when if when they're traveling for the first time.
So and don't rely on a single source of information.
Like I've said, there's plenty of instances where I've been
where people misquote their own their own transportation companies information,

(43:20):
their own government's information. I have because of all the
work in the resource that we've been doing, I've been
able to help governments realize where some of their websites
aren't and aren't displaying information correctly. And you know what,
your veterinarian, you don't have to kind of ask like
they're not going to be the ones that are going

(43:42):
to answer everything for you, but include them in the
conversation from the beginning because they're the ones that are
going able to help you get your vaccines in order
as well in advance or any other travel treatments that
you might need. And they're a huge part of this
process of travel. And while they might not want to
take all the hours to do all the paperwork for you,
like think you care about your animal a lot, and

(44:03):
they want to make sure that your animal is okay
to travel and so things like making sure their heart's
okay to be able to travel is really important. So
definitely including the veterinarian. And like you know, you have
your digital copies, you have everything one place, Uh, you
follow all the rules, you follow the steps like you know,
I mean this brings down, you're I remember we're talking
about training the humans before it trains the humans to

(44:25):
be better at traveling as well. Right, so, uh so, yeah,
that's the takeaway the mistakes and then how to press.
I would say, you know, give yourself time. Don't think
you're we want to get every pet traveling, but we
also realize that not every trip is is is going
to be possible for every pet to travel, So take
your time, sign up early, and uh start to do

(44:47):
the work a little early. Reach out to us. We're
happy to help at Paths Pass and you know, it's
it is kind of amazing when you get to travel
with with an animal. It's yeah, it's it's still rewarding.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
Yeah, I just want through out there because since I
know about this one from experience, Hawaii also is rabies free,
and you literally have to start four months in advance
before you're going to travel to Hawaii, if not longer,
because your animal, like you said, it has to have
a raby shot, but they have a requirement it has
to have that shot or two shots or something like

(45:23):
anyway several months in advance of going there, and if
you don't do that, then your animal will be quarantined
because that's how they're keeping rabies off of the islands.
So yeah, so research before you travel. There's some countries
that still won't depending I don't think. I don't know
because this has been several years ago that I had

(45:45):
heard this, but there's still some countries I think that
may not even allow your pet to come in. So
you really need to do some research ahead of time
before you get, you know, whatever country you're going to
to to see, you know, like Lauren saying what requirements
and stuff like that are, and and I would say,
because I was going to just ask if you thought
there was anything airlines or governments could do to make

(46:07):
pet travels safer or more humane. But obviously getting the
correct information on the government or the country websites, whichever
it may be, would be one of the bigger things
I would think. So Unfortunately, like you, you know, you
experience sometimes there's not the correct information and and so
you may have to do even more due diligence when

(46:29):
you're you know, looking into that stuff. But yeah, so you.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Could or I mean, I'm gonna be so biased right on, Laurie,
or you can just sign up.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
For path Yeah, yeah, exactly, there you go.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
And then going back to the one point you made
to about what what governments and airlines could do with
some really exciting things on the horizon for twenty twenty six,
I can't and sadly I can't talk about them too
much right now, but we're definitely gonna be looking at
piloting a QR code based transit system with some of

(47:02):
those agencies that you mentioned in twenty twenty six. So
the future of travel is definitely furry and and it's
also definitely digital if anything, you know, not for the
fact that like your dog could eat your vaccine paperwork.
And then where are you're going to start or where
you're going to be at?

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, and I was actually going to ask you, you
know here in a minute, what the what was next
for pads passed, you know, what new features, global expansions
or any kind of partnerships. But so it sounds like
you've got some things in the work coming out here
in the next year. So people should be excited about
some of that stuff that you're going to have coming out.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Yeah, we're trying to make it easy for everyone. Like
I said, we want to be an ally for the airlines.
The check in agents like it. Just like my heart
goes out to veterinarians, my heart also goes out to
the check and agent, even though I fear them and
they definitely put this here have gone into pe whenever
I'm about to walk up through a desk, because you know,
at the end of the day, they're the ones that
can make your break your trip, right. And for a

(48:03):
lot of them, they're not always actually connected to the airlines.
Sometimes they're outsourced, and so they're just going off of
what's on the computer and the resources that they have,
and so they're also at a very unfair advantage disadvantage
at times because they have to make decisions about whether
it animal can board or not. But they're not given
all the information, right And so what we're looking to

(48:25):
do and what we're gonna hopefully be piloting in the
new year is kind of making a more uniformed approach
to that, right, So having you know, a dynamic time
based kind of mobile path each each time you travel
that's custom to your trip. And so they they don't
even have like there's no questions asked, Like there's two

(48:47):
green check marks that say your your vaccines are up
to date, you know, any treatments are good, and there's
if they need to access more information, they have the
authority and the capability to be able to do that
with what we're building. So I think that that to me,
that really excites me because what was it October? I
was flying back and thank goodness I had a savvy

(49:08):
person on the check and desk because she goes, guess what,
there's no information on this computer right now. I know
that there's requirements where you go to Bermuda, but I'm
gonna have to call someone and ask them. I was like, Okay,
that's fine, Like I feel like, you know, she was
doing everything right, you know, and she could have just
said computer says no, because literally computer said no, nothing

(49:30):
right right. So yeah, So we're we're looking to kind
of be that go between that ally and just that
making it easier for everyone. One of my colleague loves
to day we're clear for pets. So you can think
of how he hated to go through clear.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
That's that's what we're aving for, right right. So learn
Could you say what has surprised you the most about
your startup journey so far and what milestones is pads
passed most proud of since you guys have launched.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
So one of the surprises for me is that like,
like and I think this is this is very interesting
and especially for anyone who does travel with your pet
is Demea misses that you don't realize you even missed, right,
because you just got lucky because you know, you you followed,
you know enough of the rules and enough of the
things worked out, and you got that good check in

(50:25):
agent and you've got the flight attendant that was fine
with it, or you know, you've got the government person
who was like, yeah, okay, that's that's fine, But like,
it's it is an obstacle course to travel. And I'm
so happy for the people that have never had to
think about that, are stressed about that and haven't had
good experience. But also I worry for you because at

(50:46):
some point that they might come and you know this
because this is a universal challenge across all countries, across
all income levels. Like honestly, what happened to me, there
was no amount of money I could have paid for
them to not take Patenton from me. I even asked,
I said, could I could I go with you? To
go with her? Like could I just be locked up

(51:08):
with her, and I was like that was not an
option anymore. Yeah, it was like I was like, I
will go with I don't care like and they're like,
you're not allowed to. So like it doesn't matter how
much money you have, sometimes you have to follow the
health rules and that's that's just that's the way it is.
And so you know, we're kind of we're that peace

(51:29):
of mind when it comes to travel where h And
another great analogy I love is we're like TurboTax for
pet travel, right, it just like justadly does it all
for you, you know. And so we have, you know,
some great early adopters that are veterinarians. We've been we've

(51:50):
had amazing support working and piloting our prototype with the
PROGNA government veterinarian here, and then we've had veterinarians in
the US that have been kind of seeing our raises
and people Vetnarian starting is on board. If you're a vetinaryan,
if you have a vetinary practice, you can go to
padspass dot com and go to vetinary Practices and you
can onboard for free to our software checkpoint. You don't

(52:12):
have it doesn't have to integrate with your software. It's
super easy to use. Basically, just make sure that your
patient management system, like how you have your records, just
matches the records for our users when they're traveling, and
then you press the green button and then we figure
out to travel for them. So we kind of take
all that burden and ease off for you. And then
you know, we've had some great supporters here and Bermuda specifically,

(52:36):
because when you travel here, you have to fly off,
like there's no other option. You don't get to drive.
I know so many pet parents in the US that
have done those long drives so they're not separated because
they're pets, right, and I think that's amazing. But you know,
here you have to fly. So we've had you know,
we've had a wonderful warm reception of early adopters here traveling,

(52:56):
just wanting to make it easier and not be so
paper based, not be so good using and you know,
I think being you know, we've had we did the
for me to accelerate our program here with the Ignite
program that I mentioned, and we've been getting some industry
recognition with some different agencies, which is which is pretty
impressive for how small we are and how like how

(53:18):
we're still growing. And yeah, I can't wait to see, uh,
the next jurisdiction that we add, what's coming in. It's
going to land in January. I don't know which one
it's going to be yet, but you know, it's uh
wherever it is. It's like, the more places we add,
the more we get to travel with our pets. And

(53:40):
that's really what makes me happy, you know.

Speaker 1 (53:42):
And it's funny you were just talking about, you know,
these long drives with our pets. So back in July,
my mother passed away and she lives in Michigan and
I live in Arizona. And as I said before the show,
I have a senior dog who's a brown seventeen and
my son also has a sea your dog and uh,
well number one, we we've only flown once and he

(54:06):
has sworn to God he's never gonna fly again. He
didn't really like it, but we were kind of like,
I'm not gonna leave my old dog in a boarding
facility for a couple of weeks. Why, you know, we're
going to Michigan. So we rented a motor home and
we both took our senior dogs with us. And I
had to make sure we know we have our RABY
certificates and things like that just in case. I mean,

(54:28):
it's you know, driving through the United States isn't as
big of a deal obviously as flying and then going
internationally and stuff like that as well. But you just
never know when you're gonna need, you know, to have
that kind of information with you. So so I get it. Yeah,
driving and having that.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Info, you know, it doesn't get talked about enough actually,
and I love that you brought that up is because
you're like, I'm just going from one state to the next.
I don't need a RABY certificate, right, Yeah, RABY has Harry.
You know, one of the animals that carries rabies is
raccoons in the US, which is pretty interesting. But do

(55:08):
you know what a veterinarian has to do if an
animal has been suspects of rabies because they've had a
bite and they can't prove that that they've been vaccinated to.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
Twelve years of animal control. I know exactly what they
have to do because I've had to do it. So yes,
I do know exactly what they have to do. Would
you like to say or there? Would you like me
to explain it?

Speaker 2 (55:32):
I can say it because I mean, when we talk
about your missus, you know you think, like, oh, you
missed a flight because you didn't get to board on something, right,
like boohoo, Like you know that's so convenient, right, like
why why are what could cavspassially do that could actually
like help her support you? Right? Like, but even driving
if your animal was you know, at a dog park
or something at a rest stop, if there was any

(55:54):
questions that there your animal is a task by an
animal that could have rabies and you can't prove they
your animal has been vaccinated for rabies. And your animal
gets taken into animal control or to a veterinarians, they
had to euphanize your animal and then they have de
capitate it and send it off for testing. And that
is like the worst thing. If there's one thing that

(56:15):
you do to take care of your animal health, it's
just make sure that you have their vaccines on hand,
like honestly, like I don't even care if you use
pads fast or not, but like to me, that there
is there's nothing worse than thinking of that, And it's
it's heartbreaking to think that that, like all because you
didn't have a piece of paper or something on your.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Phone right, So I got very well versed in rabies. Well,
obviously animal control for twelve years, but I got very
well versed with the rabies because we actually have rabies
epidemic in the county that in the area I was
assigned in the county where I live, and it went
on for almost a year, and I ran and I

(56:57):
got to know the state health veterinarians here in Phoenix,
Arizona on a first name basis. We were very familiar
with each other because I was so Raccoons, skunks, and
bats are the three biggest carrier well for rabies, and
fox can have it too, and it just depends, and
they can cross variants. So if a bat bike's at fox,

(57:20):
the bat can give a fox the bat variant of rabies,
and vice versa. So you know, it's very interesting. But yes,
if your dog or whatever gets attacked by a wild
animal and you cannot provide that animal to be tested,
your dog can be euthanized and yes, decapitated because it

(57:43):
is the brain that needs to be tested for the rabies.
You also would have a choice of having your animal
quarantined for six months to see because with that being said,
rabies would show up within six months of being attacked.
So you can have an animal quarantine for a six

(58:04):
month period to see if rabies shows up. If you're
lucky and it does not, then you would have your
animal vaccinated. YadA YadA. But let me just tell you
how expensive it is to quarantine your animal for six months.
Most people cannot afford the price that a vet or
a shelter will and then you're leaving. If you're in
another state, you have to leave your animal there for

(58:26):
that six months to be quarantined. So the upside is
is if you are able to get the animal that
or if your pet is vaccinated for rabies, you still
have to face some things. If they're vaccinated and a
wild animal bites some and you don't know if it
has rabies. It's a booster shot for the rabies vaccination

(58:50):
and then a forty five day quarantine. So again, you know,
depending on what's going on, it can also be expensive
even for forty five days. But yeah, a lot of
people don't realize. They really think that, oh, it could
just be a blood tested. No, that is not how
they test for rabies. And believe me, like I said,
I went through a year of having animals tested, not

(59:14):
not necessarily the dogs and stuff like that, but you know,
the skunks and the raccoons and bats and stuff like that.
We but yeah, it's people don't realize what can happen
if they don't have their animals vaccinated and a wild
animal gets them and you can't prove rabies or not rabies.
So I'm glad you brought that up because it is

(59:34):
a big thing. If Yeah, so if anything at all,
make sure your animals vaccinated.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
Yeah, it's a completely preventable incident, right, And I think
that that goes back to the you know, the kind
of the core of pet travel looks different. Pet travel
has different requirements right when you travel and you change
and you move away from your area or like your
boundary or your jurisdiction, Like, the health requirements are different

(01:00:03):
and they may change. It's not just like the normal
care that you that you get when you're home. Right
at least, you know, if you were if you never
traveled and you never went anywhere and you were just nearby,
you know, you could go to your veterinarian at least
all of your records are there. Right, But like we
live like we're a global society that we're constantly moving

(01:00:24):
and all of your records, like you have to try
and get them. And so that's an interesting trend that
a lot of veterinarians that I know that are seeing,
is that pet parents want to have their animals data.
They want to be in charge of it rather and
their health records rather than trying to kind of piece
me on it from the different practices they've been to
and having them transferred, right like, they want to be
able to have it all in their hand. And so

(01:00:45):
even if you get the free version of pads Pass,
you know, and just upload the documents just to kind
of store them all there, please do like and also
we'd love you. We would love your user feedback too.
And if you know, a natural disaster we haven't even
touched on, but that's what disaster comes, whether it's a
forest fire or a hurricane in my situation, and you've

(01:01:07):
got to go quickly, like you've got to have all
your stuff on you in order to do that, you know,
and right nowadays the easiest thing that you have is
your phone or you know, have being digital. So you know,
I can't I can't stress enough that, like there's so
many preventable incidents that you can do just by kind

(01:01:27):
of you know, organizing yourself and and and you know,
putting your your pets health first when it comes especially
when it comes to travel, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
And it's funny that you you know, you just touched
on the like that's natural disasters and stuff like that,
because I was just thinking I had an emergency veterinarian
on the podcast with me a while back. And even
with that, I mean, if if something happens where you're
your pet has an emergency and you go, you know,

(01:02:00):
if you can get into your regular vet and they
can't take care of that situation and they're sending you
to an emergency VET, I mean, it would be helpful
to have that information, you know, for whatever medications your
pet might be on the vaccination records, you know that
kind of stuff. I mean obviously if you've had to
have like some kind of X rays or something done.

(01:02:22):
And believe me, people ask for that information before you
leave your vet's office to go to an emergency VET.
Because there's situations where you think, oh, they can just
transfer that information over. No, they can't, because those computer
systems sometimes are not compatible and one vet cannot get
that information to the other vet, and so you may
now have to pay double if you've had to have

(01:02:43):
X rays or whatever, or they may not be able
to get that information to be able to save your
pet's life. So that's another good instance that you could
have that information right there available.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Yeah, there's just there's so many ways that we can
kind of I know, we could talk for ages, right.
I think at the end of the day, we want
to give pets the same dignity in travel systems as
we do people, and that can and also in health systems, right,
you know, like as humans we want to kind of
have our records too, right, so why don't really want
the same for our pets?

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Right exactly. That's a good point. So one last quick question,
how do you hope pads pass is going to change
the pet travel landscape in the next few years.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
I want safe pet travel to be the norm and
not the exception. And I also want it to be easy,
like and when I say easy, I mean I don't
mean like, you know, like tearing down like all the
requirements and everything that's there. I just want it to
be easy in the sense that it's just straightforward and

(01:03:49):
manageable for people to see and to understand it for
you know, the different people that have to do the
checks or interact with the pet parent and the animal.
It's easier for them as well. Want to reduce the
preventable pet travel incidents that can and do exist as
part of making it easier. And I really would love
to shift the industry from being reactive to proactive, Like

(01:04:14):
how can we I mean, great example, with love, if
an airline to just to.

Speaker 4 (01:04:19):
On board.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Pet fees. Let's talk about pet fees like some people
like I don't mind paying the pet fee, like to
have my dog with me and cabin right, but is
that can we Is there an easier way to do it?
Can we use miles? Can we prepay for it? Can we?
Miles would be awesome? Right? Like you know I would

(01:04:41):
find with that airline that always let me pay for
my pet and cabin fee with miles.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
You've got context. Maybe you should tell the airline.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
But you know, how can we think of the traveling
pet parent as a high value customer because they do
end up pay for a lot more. I mean like
our like our own research that we did, we learned
that on average, pet people who travel with their pets
will spend around five hundred dollars per trip on their pet, right,
so they're you know, they're not. Now It's not to

(01:05:16):
say that I don't love a good budget trip as well,
and that's some things are overinflated. But what I am
saying is that, you know, pet travel isn't the most
inexpensive thing, and we should be taken, you know, as
the pet parents who are paying for those fees, like
we should be taken into consideration for that. So it
would be great if people started looking at it as
like this is actually you know, I think on the

(01:05:39):
day as the travel company came out with a great
bin of thought leadership and they called it the Pawprint economy.
Like people are starting to take notice when it comes
to travel that people are traveling with their pets, and
they end up spending a lot more on their pets
when it comes to travel at times. So I would
love for I want the stry to definitely embrace the

(01:06:01):
paul Print economy and how we can all help and
support and make pet travel safe, easy and you know compliant.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
As well, right right exactly. And I just want to
throw something out real quick. It's not really about paths
past stuff. But if you guys do fly with your pets,
always make sure to take some extra treats and like
maybe a little extra bag of dog food or something,
because you just never know when you might have a
layover or a delay for whatever reason, and you might

(01:06:34):
want to have that extra stuff in case you need
to feed your pet. You know, it's always good to
have some extra stuff to take with you just in
case you never know.

Speaker 4 (01:06:43):
Yeah, you need to.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
You need to learn to surrender some of your your
carry on baggage when you travel with a pet. I
should say as well for that food, for the things,
the just in case stuff that you need, because it
is really important that you have that with you because
otherwise you can find yourself stuck in an airport for
a very long period of time and a very hungry animal.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Yep, exactly exactly. So well, Lauren, it has been great
having you on tonight to talk about all of this
and this wonderful app that you've come up with to
help people in their travels with their pets and all
the other great things that we mentioned. You can use
the pads pass app for so one more time, why
don't you go ahead and throw your website information out

(01:07:25):
there and don't forget guys. If you go to the
website and you want to get to digital pass then
you can get fifty dollars off if you use the
code calling Creatures fifty.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
Yes, that is absolutely right, Laurie. So calling creatures fifty,
you go to padpast dot com slash Digital tet Passport,
I'll bring you directly to the page where you can
use the checkout link to subscribe. If you select a
digital pet pasport and you put the subscribe button and
then the Kosong code put in calling Creatures fifty. You
have to do it before it hit twenty twenty six,

(01:08:01):
and you'll get fifty dollars off of one year subscription.
And then as we.

Speaker 4 (01:08:05):
Add locations, as we add extra features, as we continue
to grow the platform, you get all of that for
that one same price, and others then have to probably
pay a bit more.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
So get in at twenty twenty five rates. I love
talking with you, Laurie. Your experience and your perspective is
just so refreshing. And thank you so much for having
me on.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
Yeah, I really appreciate you coming on tonight. Like I said,
it's it's really great information. For people that are going
to travel, and it's I'm so glad that you came
up with this app because I can just see in
the future how much it's going to make people's life
and pet's life so much easier when they have to
travel and go places. So thank you so much for
coming up with that. And I again, I'm so sorry

(01:08:49):
you had to go through that with Paddington though, to
think of this, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
She left an amazing legacy. Yeah, we should all, you know,
we can all thanks for this because without her, uh,
you know, we we'd all still be dealing with the
struggle of the fractured system. So things happened for a reason,
and so grateful that they did, because you know, life
is already getting easier for me traveling with it now.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure it's it's you have. You've
traveled so much that I'm sure this has been such
a great help for you, even though you still got
the folder that broke.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
Okay, I can't wait to get rid of it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Yeah, I'll bet, I'll bet. All right, Well, Lauren, thank
you again for being on tonight. I'm just going to
go ahead and announce my next couple upcoming podcasts after
the New Years, so you are more and welcome to
jump off because I know it's late for you in Bermuda.
And uh again, I enjoyed speaking with you too and
learning so much more about patch Pass.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
Thanks Laurie.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
All right, you have a good night you too. Bye.
All right, everybody, So, I I hope you enjoyed the
conversation tonight with Lauren. Gosh, that was a lot of
really good information that she was able to give us
about that app she created and why and everything and

(01:10:12):
what all it can help you do. So guys, hopefully
you will go visit to the website and go for
the digital passport and passport and use that code that
she gave out calling Creatures fifty and get fifty dollars off.
But don't forget, you've got to do it before January first,
because otherwise you're going to end up paying the whole price.

(01:10:34):
So check it out and get it if you travel,
I think it's definitely worth the money for the app
because it's going to make your life so much easier.
And believe me, I've heard so many people say all
these different things and how crazy it is to try
to travel with their pets. So having that information right
there is going to be awesome for you guys. All Right, So,

(01:10:58):
like I said, I going to be off for the
next couple of weeks due to Christmas and New Year's
So the next podcast is not going to be until
January eighth, and then I am going to have Arthur
von Weisenberger on with me. And Arthur is the producer

(01:11:22):
host of Animal Zone and Animal Zone. He talks about
all sorts of different animal advocacy. They have over one
hundred and thirty episodes. It's a platform for sharing stories
of animal advocacy, rescue efforts, and you know, bonds between
humans and animals. He Arthur covers a wide range of topics,

(01:11:45):
you know, kind of like I do as well. And
he's been filming shows throughout the US and he's now
including some episodes from you know, some international locations. So
I'm really excited to have Arthur come on the show
and talk with me about Animal Zone and being an
advocate for animal welfare. So I can't wait for that one.

(01:12:08):
And again, that one will be on January eighth, and
then on January twenty second, I'm going to have doctor
Cliff Redford on the show. He's actually known as the
Worldwide Vet and he does a lot of different well
not only like domestic animals and pets as clinic and

(01:12:29):
stuff like that, he also does wildlife medicine and surgery.
So you know, he spends his days taking care of
pets at his clinic, and then his off hours he
spends rescuing animals across the globe. In fact, not too
long ago, more recently, he was just out on a

(01:12:50):
globe tritting mission with his daughter, volunteered and in several
old different countries to help save wildlife and share their
stories and stuff like that. So I can't wait to
have doctor Cliff on as well, because I think this
is going to be another really good podcast talking about

(01:13:11):
all these different things that he does helping out with
wildlife and the you know, animal rescues, adoptions, advocacy and
wildlife conservation that he you know, helps out with. So
and you know, doctor Cliff does a lot of that
in his vac on his vacation time because he's you know,

(01:13:31):
working at his pet clinic during the day. So looking
forward to those podcasts, So don't forget. January eighth is
Arthur von Weisenberger and again he's the executive director host
of Animals Own. And then on January twenty second, doctor
Cliff Redford, the Worldwide Vet, to come on and talk

(01:13:53):
about all these really great things that he does as
a vet when working with the wildlife and advocating and
wildlife conservation and stuff like that. So looking forward to
talking with those two gentlemen. I think those are going
to be some really good podcasts as well. So again,
I hope you guys all enjoyed the podcast tonight. I
know we went a little bit over, but it was
such a great discussion with Lauren, and I wanted to

(01:14:15):
get as much information out there as we could and
share some of the stories that we did. So and again,
don't forget, guys, get your animals vaccinated for rabies because
you really don't want to have to go through some
of these things if your animal gets attacked by something
that's wild and you can't prove if it has rabies
or not. So and with that being said, I hope
you guys all stay safe out there this weekend. I

(01:14:36):
hope you all have a merry Christmas, a happy Holidays,
happy Hanukkah, whatever you may celebrate for Christmas. If you
don't celebrate Christmas. Just have a happy time, be with
family and friends and remember, guys, kindness, you know, it
goes a lot further than anger and you know those

(01:14:59):
kinds of things. So anyway, you guys all, have a
good night, and don't forget to come back on January
eighth to listen to the next podcast. Alright, bye now,
Oh I almost forgot. Have a happy New Year to
you guys. Alright now, let's literally bye now.