While most people complain about the lack of space on an airplane, the more than 12,000 animals rescued in the last four years by Wings of Rescue haven’t barked a peep — at least not about that.
They’re coming from the overcrowded confines of animal shelters (and facing certain death) and, for them, the chance at a good life takes off when the pilots do.
Wings of Rescue, a non-profit organization based in California, has a simple mission: to rescue healthy dogs — and sometimes cats — from high-kill shelters where they face near-certain euthanasia.
How do they do this? By flying them to points northwest for a second chance at life in rescue centers, humane societies, or new homes.
Yehuda Netanel, founder and president of Wings of Rescue, said business has doubled each of the past 4½ years.
Wait until you see how many dogs he rescued alone before the organization took off…
He started as the lone pilot who rescued 300 dogs, but the organization now has about 25 volunteer pilots with high performance airplanes, and they also charter a Metroliner that can carry up to about 200 small crates.
They’re averaging three flights per week now and will save about 7,000 dogs in 2015.
Because the sad reality is that more than 4 million U.S. pets are euthanized every year.
Dogs of all ages, including pregnant dogs and their newborn puppies, spend their last days in a shelter and are euthanized simply due to lack of space.
There are simply too many dogs, and not enough homes.
So just where do they take these lucky animals?
While the pilots encourage spaying and neutering as a solution, they know that airlifts will increase every year as they become more visible and the number of needy dogs grows.
States such as California, Georgia and South Carolina typically have too many dogs in shelters, while places such as Washington, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, and Florida need more pets to satisfy demand.
To solve the location conundrum, pilots fire up their engines.
“By fostering relationships with various shelters and humane societies in various regions, we created this almost constant airlift of dogs finding new lives,” Netanel said.
“It’s time-consuming and complicated to coordinate this — especially with a staff of zero but many dedicated volunteers — but the dogs aren’t flying aimlessly in the sky,” he continued. “When we land, there are organizations taking them off the plane immediately and those dogs are being adopted within a matter of days.”
But that’s not all the organization does for needy dogs and cats…
They not only transport healthy dogs and cats, but pregnant moms and moms with newly born puppies with recent surgeries or animals in need of major surgical procedures.
Ground transport is not the best option for these animals due to the sheer length of the road trip, which can be in excess of 24 hours in the same crate without any food, water, or walks.
Most of their flights are completed in 3-4 hours at the cost of about $80 per dog.
Their work is funded completely from donations, the incredible generosity of their volunteer pilots and planes, and hundreds of rescue organizations up and down the West Coast.
While most of their work is done up in the air and under the radar, for the animals that they save, that generosity is out of this world.
All images via Facebook.
To follow Wings of Rescue, visit their website or their Facebook page.
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