Every year, January 2nd is observed as National Pet Travel Safety Day. What is the purpose of this holiday? Its purpose is to encourage people to think about safety when traveling with their pets.

It has been estimated that over 1.2 million dogs are killed on roads in the United States every year, and that figure just keeps increasing year after year. This figure includes the 100,000 dogs alone that are killed by riding in the truck beds of pickup trucks.

These are unacceptable losses of our best friends, and that’s why this is a holiday that more pet owners should consider observing. Let’s all take a look at how we travel with our pets so that we can do it in a safer manner.

The History of National Pet Travel Safety Day

This holiday was created by Colleen Paige in an attempt to get more pet owners to take pet travel safety more seriously. For those of you who don’t know, Colleen Paige is an author, lifestyle expert, conservationist, animal welfare advocate, and the founder of a lot of different animal-themed holidays. She created National Puppy Day, National Dog Day, National Wildlife Day, National Pet Day, and probably a dozen other ones.

Some Pet Travel Tips

We simply can’t observe National Pet Travel Safety Day without taking the time to cover some of the safety tips that we know about. We’ve included the following tips so that all pet owners can learn how to take better care of their pets. We hope that they truly end up being useful to all pet owners.

Travel by Plane:

• If traveling by plane, book a direct flight whenever possible.
• Make sure to get the pet a health checkup up to 10 days before departure.
• Purchase a shipping crate approved by the USDA.
• Make sure the pet’s shipping crate has proper identification on it.

Travel by Car:

• Make sure to have the proper pet supplies for a road trip.
• Keep the pet in a well-ventilated carrier or crate.
• Never leave the pet in a parked vehicle.

Observing National Pet Travel Safety Day

It doesn’t matter if a person travels with their pet in a car, train, plane, or boat; it’s important that they take the measures necessary to keep that animal as safe as possible. We’ve included some tips above that we hope will help people do just that.

We also encourage everyone to use the hashtag #NationalPetTravelSafetyDay to spread the word about this holiday to other pet owners who might need to know about it. Let’s all take the time to help all pet owners travel more safely with their furry, feathered, or scaled friends.