A few years ago, Emilia Barclow wanted to relocate from the United Kingdom to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Like any international move, it was a bit of a slog. She had to ship out all of her

belongings, go through a customs process, and find a new place to stay. But

Barclay's move also involved a more unique challenge.

Those are Barkclo's pet ducks, Bean and Wabbles. Bean, she looks like a

Pinto bean, she has little brown and cream spots all over.

Wobbles is because he's very clumsy and very round and he tends to fall

onto his back a lot like a turtle.

As it turned out, getting Bean and Wobbles to their new home in a new country was no simple task.

We would speak to someone from the USDA who worked in livestock, they'd be like, no, they're pets.

And we go to the people who work for importing pets. They're like, no, they're livestock.

There was no protocol for what we were trying to do. It was to the point where I call someone someone and they go, oh you're the duck lady, yeah sorry we can't help you.

So Barclow had to turn to a specialist, a company that has found a lucrative niche in transporting pets all over the world.

We had goats, pigeons, sheep, the airports have thousands of weird and wonderful animals go through

tropical fish, alligators, lions tigers, flocks of birds, the occasional duck.

This one family had an emotional support hedgehog, which is absolutely fine.

For the Freeconomics Radio Network, this is the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Krakkin. Today,

pet movers. Being and wobbles aren't the only jet-setters in the animal

kingdom. Every year, around half a million pets travel by air.

Sometimes pet owners just want to take their dog or cat on a vacation, but there are also job

relocations and permanent moves and those require an expert.

My name is Mike Gaze, I'm the Managing Director of Global Pet Relocation.

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