Dear David-
I really think you saved Clyde’s life– at least you extended it. We weren’t about to let a blackout take that great dog down.
But I really couldn’t get him up and down the steps, we were screwed. His legs were splaying out.
You saved our bacon by getting us that van tues night and that great driver!
Thank You So Much ~Ben
PS- Just got back to see the Giants lose! Boo!
It’s the 141st birthday of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and people and groups nationwide are donning and draping the ASPCA’s signature color to “celebrate the special human-animal bond,” says Jo Sullivan, the organization’s vice president of development and communication.
School teachers and librarians will offer special-educational programs, shelters are holding special animal events, and animal-friendly businesses have devised ways to trumpet support of the day. Pet Chauffeur in Manhattan the premier pet taxi service ,will tie large orange bows on its cars,pet transportation is a big service in NYC. Petride.com 212-696-9744 is open 365 days a year. Also Jack London Square in Oakland will display ASPCA posters.
COLOR THEM ANIMAL LOVERS
• New York – A celebration at Union Square from 4 to 8 p.m. will feature Animal Planet personalities, a costume party and an adoption fair.
• Bossier City, La. – Louisiana Boardwalk merchants will dress themselves and their establishments in orange, eateries are concocting orange drinks, and their will be a pet costume party.
• The L.A. Coliseum – “Go Orange for ASPCA Day” will streak across the Jumbe\otron.
• Austin – The Round Rock Express minor league baseball team will make an announcement during the game, and employees will wear orange wristbands.
The efforts are an outgrowth of a Manhattan celebration last year of the New York-based ASPCA’s 140th birthday. Response to the event extended far beyond New York as supporters from all over the country e-mailed goofy costumed-pet pictures to support the day.
“It was to have been a one-time event,” Sullivan says, but organizers realized that they had “tapped into something.”
Three decades ago, valuing animals “was not on the radar” of most Americans, ASPCA president Ed Sayres says. But society has become a more animal-conscious place, he says.
More than 50,000 ASPCA orange wristbands are expected to be ordered online for the celebration (1 million are in circulation already). The ASPCA has created 10 animal e-greetings that website visitors can send to friends and family, and the group is posting several “go orange” ideas.
How are you and your beloved pooches faring so far during this snow storm? Several feet of snow have been dropped on the City already and it doesn’t look like it is going to let up for a while.
While grit sprinkled on the sidewalks make it easier for humans to get around, the salt and chemicals it contains are terrible for dogs’ paws. The salt dries them out and can cause burning, cracks or blisters which can lead to infections.
There are several things you can do to prevent this:
If, however, you would rather your dog didn’t walk around in such heavy snow, Pet Chauffeur will be more than happy to take your beloved pooch anywhere in the City that they need to go. Just give us a call!
Taxis will pass you if you have a dog (unless your’s can hide in a bag). But several companies have vehicles that will transport dogs. For example, Pet Chauffeur (212-696-9744, www.petride.com) has seven passenger vans specially designed for canine comfort and to hold luggage and pet owners, too. Each van has emergency equipment, including a stretcher, muzzle, disinfectants, and safety belt clips.
“We’d be able to take the dogs quickly to an emergency facility,” says owner David Lang, who has worked the show for five years. “All of our drivers are capable of handling and muzzling a dog.”
By Ralph R. Ortegas
05/19/2001
PET CABBIES OFFER QUICK PICK-‘EM-UP
Vicki Ungar gave up yelling, “Hey, taxi!” to go across town with Molly, her lovable cocker spaniel.”Ten taxis will pass you before one will stop. I guess most don’t like people with animals,” said Ungar, a pet hospital manager who travels to work with her pooch daily.
David Lang, owner of Pet Chauffer, picks up another fare. Ungar gets Molly there using Pet Chauffeur, one of the city’s pet-transportation companies that allow humans along for the ride. Animal lovers who travel with sizable dogs, as well as iguanas, ferrets and other exotic critters, have turned to such companies after being banned from most other modes of public transport.
Cabbies take the most heat for passing on pets, objecting because of their size and even for religious and cultural reasons. Many drivers can’t handle fur. “I’m highly allergic to cats, I choke,” said Fernando Mateo, president of the 30,000-member New York Federation of Taxi Drivers, representing livery cabs. But the biggest objection comes from the potential backseat cleanup.
“Cab drivers don’t like to stop for pets because they fear they might do their business in the car,” said David Lang, owner of the Long Island City-based Pet Chauffeur. Potty accidents are no problem for Lang, whose five-minivan fleet comes prepared for cleanups. Lang charges varying rates around town, starting at $25 for 1 to 40 blocks. He also will go out of state. Locally, owners travel free and crates are not usually required.
Ungar calls ahead to schedule her 15-minute ride to work at the Park East Animal Hospital in midtown. Drivers usually arrive early, she said, and often will tune into Molly’s favorite jazz and classical stations for the ride. Dog and owner make at least 10 trips a week, pricey for Ungar since she started taking Molly to work in January. She declined to discuss how much she pays, but explained that 12-year-old Molly has cancer. “She’s very special, and a great companion,” said Ungar, who was recently divorced. “I’ll really do anything for my dog.”
Pet movers make trips to the vet, hospital, groomers, doggie day care, airports and New York’s animal havens.
“I take a customer three times a week from Tribeca to Central Park with her giant, beautiful German shepherd, Harley!” said Larry Reilly, owner of the Manhattan-based Pet Taxi. Reilly also offers tempting excursions to grassy country settings near mountains and lakes, and provides weekend service to the Hamptons. “Reunite yourself and your dog with Mother Nature,” he urges on his Web site, “Meet other pet owners who want to give their pets a better life.”
In 1999, Gail Pierangelino, a former deli owner and groomer from Manhattan, started a one-woman pet-travel business called Petex. Ever since, she has found customers who wouldn’t travel any other way with their animals. “They have no worries,” said Pierangelino, 47. “They call me up, and I’m there. It’s like having a private car for you and your animal.”
05/04/2003
Owner David Lang started Pet Chauffeur four years ago with one goal: to create a recession-proof business.
At the time, Lang delivered prescription pet food for high-end veterinarians. The vets told Lang their clients lacked transport for their animals around Manhattan. Lang was surprised. “I didn’t even know there was a problem with it,” he said, “because I didn’t live in Manhattan.”
Lang realized that no matter the economy, people spend money on their pets. Then he took a closer look at his clientele and realized their problem: Few city pet owners drive and fewer cabs take Labrador retrievers.
For Lang, it made sense. If it’s hard for you to get a cab, try getting one for you and a rottweiler. Not to mention that most cab drivers won’t take any animals becuase the animals might “do business” in the car, he said.
Also, many cabbies have issues with pooch passengers.
“If you ask them, they’ll say dogs are dirty, and we will not put dogs in our car,” he said, adding, “I love it that they hate them.”
In just four years, Pet Chauffeur has gone from one van to 11, and the company’s 20 employees ferry from 20 to 40 people and pets daily.
Their orange vans carry animals either in crates or roaming in the back. Animals can also go with or without their owner.
Business has grown steadily. Lang said the company had $480,000 in total sales in 2002, up 20 percent from 2001.
Pet Chauffeur charges $25 for a trip of one to 40 Manhattan blocks, $30 for 40 to 80 blocks and $35 for 80 to 120 blocks.
One reason for the company’s good health, Lang noted, is that his clients are among the wealthiest New Yorkers. Robert De Niro and his Burmese mountain dog are regulars. Janeane Garofalo, Sean “P.Diddy” Combs and Janet Jackson also use the company.
Non-celebs use it, too. Bruno Lauder and his large poodle, Indi, use Pet Chauffeur to ferry them from his Manhattan home to his Queens business daily.
Last year, Lauder spent $12,000 with the company. Lauder uses Pet Chauffeur because Indi gets car sick, and the company’s drivers are trained to drive smoothly. “David spends a lot of time explaining to them that they cannot be race drivers when you drive animals around,” Lauder said.
While 90 percent of Lang’s business is dog owners, he will transport any animal. A giant bearded dragon lizard was a customer – in a crate the size of a coffin – as were a pair of chimpanzees.
Now Lang wants to expand. Last summer, the firm did long-distance pet-relocation drives on a trial basis, with a pair of bulldogs going to L.A. for $6,100
Pet Chauffeur also has gotten into international animal shipping. After September 11, this has become tougher since airlines investigate every package.
The company does all the paperwork and even books the tickets for its customers. This might seem excessive, but as Lang knows, some pet owners will do anything for their pets. Or at least pay someone else to.
NEW YORK
Paws are no longer good enough for the Big Apple’s streets
IF YOU, as a human, think it is hard to hail a cab in New York , just imagine what it is like if you are a dog. Or, to be more precise, imagine what it was like, because now New York dogs have acquired what they have been panting for since the city began: a pet chauffeur.
Like many clever businesses, this one emerged from a customer’s most desperate need. A decade ago, David Lang bought an old station wagon and began delivering food and medicine from vets to their clients. Before long, veterinarians were requesting Mr. Lang to do a return trip with ailing pets. So Pet Chauffeur was born.
New York swarms with dogs that have wealthy absentee owners. Mr. Lang fills the gap, and it is a very, very, large gap. His old station wagon has been junked, replaced by a fleet of seven specially equipped mini-vans (with dog seatbelts). Given a moment of free time, an eighth would be added.
Mr. Lang’s office resembles a war room. The front wall is taken up by a vast erasable white board, staffed by two employees who constantly rub out and add new requests to each driver’s schedule. Telephones ring constantly. Mornings and evenings are always packed, as is lunchtime, as are rainy days (when, Mr. Lang says, it really does rain cats and dogs). Conversations with Mr. Lang, beyond a few key questions to confirm street and time, are impossible.
He has 10,000 clients, including many celebrities (dog confidentiality precludes disclosing their names), and more are constantly being added.
Medical runs to the vet are now just a tiny part of the business. Several owners use Pet Chauffeur to commute with their dogs to work in fancy midtown offices. An extensive dog social network also exists. They are picked up for afternoon “play-dates” with friends, or for dog birthday parties (Pet Chauffeur provides cakes). For dogs lacking close friends, there are more than a dozen designated dog parks in the city where new acquaintances are usually available, and Pet Chauffeur knows them all. Two days a week, it runs a shuttle to a dog resort in a suburb. And, for those hot days, it frequently transports clients to a dog pool on Ninth Avenue .
Naturally, competition has emerged, but such is the demand that the various firms work together during peak hours, referring customers. Prices are, inevitably higher than for the average human, but of course, to the owners, these passengers are more valuable. They begin at more than $30 for a short hop, and can reach $200 for a trip from Manhattan to Newark airport. None of his riders, says Mr. Lang, eve complains.
David Lang is the owner of a pet transportation service and he does not stop moving. In his Long Island City office, he is taking calls on his cell phone or giving orders while scrutinizing the drivers’ schedules laid out in marker over a wall.
“I love it. It keeps you going. It is quick-paced,” he said.
Lang, 38, runs Pet Chauffeur Ltd., located at 36-03 13th St. in Long Island City, which has been helping animal owners transport their furry loved ones about the city and beyond for some seven years now.
His business, one of a handful in the city that offer transportation services for animals, sprang up because pet owners have found it difficult to hail a cab if the driver sees that a dog or other animal is going to be sitting in the back seat.
He got the idea for the service after delivering medicine and food from veterinarians to pet owners and getting requests from the vets to bring the animals back to the clients. He was also inspired by an uncle who made a small fortune in the pet food business in New Jersey.
He is looking to grow the business, but wants to be sure he is ready for the growth.
“I have vehicles that I am not satisfied with,” he said. “And in New York people give you one chance. I want to make sure I am ready for this.”
His business has expanded to a full-service pet supply service, from food and toys, which are available online, to boarding. He even organizes the shipping of dogs, cats, birds and reptiles. The first floor is packed with shelving for food that the company sells online.
“We are hoping to move out and hold it all in a bigger warehouse,” he said. The current building will then be converted to house more animals. “We are looking to make the whole building a kennel,” with space for 50 to 70 animals.
He now has a fleet of seven vans providing about 60 rides on a given day. On a recent day, most of the rides were in Manhattan, but he said they do frequent runs to the Queens airports.
“We go to Florida quite often. Also California, Virginia,” he said, adding that things get crazy during the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. The company has had a number of interesting passengers.
“We took chimpanzees. They were for a commercial. From JFK to a hotel in Manhattan,” he said.
Although many customers use his service to travel to the vet, other use it to make appointments at doggie spas or even doggie parties.
He said he provides some services that other carriers refuse, including transporting animals on stretchers.
The prices for the transportation service start at $27.50 for the first 40 blocks, but there are no extra charges for the owner. The standard charges rise as high as $165 for picking up a pet at Kennedy Airport.
They house as many as 20 dogs and other animals at their Queens location at any one time.
Behind the three-story house – where he lives with his wife Val, as well as a rottweiler, two cats and some fish – is a dog run with dog houses, toys fenced in with a wall of cartoon paintings of famous hounds such as Pluto and Spike from Tom and Jerry fame, and felines such as Garfield and the Cat in the Hat.
The prices for five days of boarding start at $140 for a small dog and rise to $250 for a 74-pound dog for the same time period. More information can be found on the Web site at www.petride.com.
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