Sue Wiese, founder of Operation Roger

Sue Wiese–founder and director of Operation Roger, a nonprofit organization chiefly consisting of truckers who use their trucks to transport pets, who’d been in shelters, to new homes across the country–discusses her lifelong long of animals and how she became a truck driver as a second career in her 50s, based in Texas.

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She also recalls how taking her family pets (including, initially, her dog, Roger, who since passed away) on her trucking runs, combined with a desire to do something to help pets left homeless by Hurricane Katrina led to the idea of creating Operation Roger. Sue explains how the pet transport works, including the need in some instances for “layover homes,” a very temporary foster home/transitional place where truckers whose routes prevent them from delivering the pet all the way to their new home can deposit the animal until the next trucker arrives to complete the delivery that animal. She also notes there’s an application process for Operation Roger truckers and layover homes–and that they’re hoping to recruit more truckers in parts of Florida, New England, among other areas of the country. (www.OperationRoger.com)

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