Pirate’s privileged pooches jetting home in luxury
It’s a long flight and big adventure without your owners but at least Pistol and Boo are travelling in the lap of luxury.
A well-placed source indicated that Johnny Depp’s illegally imported Yorkshire terriers, which flew out of Brisbane on Friday night, were expected to be heading home to California via Hawaii, where the aircraft will be refuelled.
The wide-bodied corporate jet, a Challenger 604, has everything the pampered pooches could wish for on the journey, which some reports suggest could cost more than A$400,000 (NZ$430,000).
The aircraft, which has two pilots and at least one flight attendant on board, can cruise at 400 knots so a trip to Hawaii would take about 10 hours.
The world of corporate jet charter is a secretive affair so the operators Business Aviation Solutions were making no comment about their VIPs (very important pooches).
Pistol and Boo had been quarantined in the luxury surrounds of retired motorbike champion Mick Doohan’s Gold Coast mansion, where Depp has been staying, before being escorted by customs officials to their flight.
The dogs had to leave the country by Saturday to avoid being euthanised.
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said the dogs had to ‘‘bugger off’’ or die, because Depp and his wife Amber Heard would not be afforded any special treatment because of their celebrity status.
The minister has come under fire for his handling of the case, with ‘‘war on terrier’’ trending on Twitter, radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands calling him an ‘‘absolute joke’’ and federal MP Clive Palmer labelling his actions ‘‘embarrassing’’.
But federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said the owner was given the option of taking them out of the country and bringing them back in if he wished through a proper process.
Depp is expected to remain on the Gold Coast, where he is filming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. It is unclear how the dogs managed to avoid quarantine processes.