USA Today is running a story on their website about an organization called Pilots N Paws. A group of merciful aviators who wait for connections to be made between families/shelters and dogs that would otherwise be euthanized.
“Pilots N Paws has given about 20 of our animals a second chance,” says Tim Adams, executive director of the Young-Williams shelter, which euthanizes 70% of the animals that land there. “We take in 17,000 animals a year, and Knoxville simply isn’t big enough… to get new homes for them here. Twenty animals saved may not sound like much, but every one of them matters.”
Pilots N Paws started operating in February soon after Wehrenberg offered to fly a Doberman in Florida to his pal Debi Boies of Landrum, S.C., who is a retired nurse, horse breeder and long-time rescuer. He began asking questions about the rescue world and learned about the passionate underground railroad of animal lovers who orchestrate days-long road journeys to save some of the 4 million to 6 million animals destined for euthanasia in U.S. shelters annually.
“I’d had no idea of the number of animals being euthanized, and the ordeal people and animals were going through in transports,” Wehrenberg says. “Pilots love to fly. I believed that if we created a means for them to discover situations where they could fly and also save animals, many would do it.”
Link, via USA Today.
I was so delighted to hear of your service. We are a rescue on the East Coast of Florida, Coastal Boxer Rescue. Miami Dade Animal Services try to do the best they can for their animals but they have over 600 dogs every day and the facility just cannot accommodate them. All the rescues are full. We would like to move some boxers up to Ithaca NY where we feel they might have a better chance at adoption. Is there any hope that you could help us.
Thank you for the wonderful work you are doing and please be in touch. We have so many boxers and boxer-mixes just now we can take no more. Two were euthanized yesterday and a couple the week before. Mainly the older ones but not always. Two year old dogs are flooding in. Ruth Macniven