Giving Hope a Chance

On a recent trip to Key West, my husband and I were able to help a rescued hound dog named Hope get closer to her forever home.  Here’s how it happened.

My husband Mark is a private pilot, and he likes to fill up the back seat of his plane with rescued animals whenever he can.  A few days prior to our trip, Mark received an email message indicating that Hope needed to be transported from Myrtle Beach, SC, to Sussex, NJ.  After a flurry of messages concerning the logistics, it was settled that we would pick Hope up in South Carolina and bring her to our home in Virginia — where we would hand her off to a second pilot who could take her the rest of the way to New Jersey.

Helping the Fur to Fly

As it turns out, transporting pets is a huge part of animal rescue.  Rescue organizations often pull adoptable pets from high-kill shelters in rural areas and send the animals to other places where they have a much better chance of finding homes.  People who live in affluent, urban areas are often surprised to find out that pet overpopulation and neglect is a serious problem in lower-income, rural areas.  Sadly, many highly adoptable dogs and cats run loose on the streets in poorer communities and are often euthanized in high-kill shelters due to overcrowded facilities, lack of spay/neuter education, and inadequate funding.  So part of the solution is to pull animals out of those overcrowded shelters, place them with volunteer foster parents, and then locate a new home in another area.

In many cases, animal rescue transport happens via car, with a series of volunteers each driving a segment of what could be a journey of hundreds — or even thousands — of miles.  Ground transport can often take many long hours, with the pets confined in crates during the trip.  But there is another way to transport the animals — by airplane, with pilots who monitor the transport clearinghouse run by Pilots N Paws®.

Happily, animal transport by airplane can often be completed within a few short hours, thereby minimizing the stress on the animals being transported.  In Hope’s case, the trip from Myrtle Beach, SC, to her final destination in New Jersey is about 700 miles.  That trip would have taken at least 11 hours by car and was much quicker by airplane.  And often, as in our case, the pilot is making the trip anyway, so it makes sense to take advantage of the empty backseat.  All that is needed is a way to connect the willing pilots with the animals in need — and that role is filled by Pilots N Paws®.

What is Pilots N Paws®?

Perhaps you know about Angel Flight or Air Charity Network, both of which provide free air transportation for people who need to reach specialized health care facilities or distant destinations due to family, community, or national crisis.  Pilots N Paws® fills a similar need — although for Pilots N Paws®, the passengers are pets.

Pilots N Paws® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works to connect animal rescue organizations needing transport for a pet with volunteer pilots who are willing to assist with animal transportation. As stated on their website, “the intent of Pilots N Paws® is to provide an environment in which volunteers can come together and arrange or schedule rescue flights, overnight foster care or shelter, and all other related activities.”