An airlift of dogmatic proportions is going on at Van Nuys Airport on Friday morning when 350-plus dogs and cats will be taken to new homes after facing the danger of being euthanisized.
The dogs and cats are heading out to other parts of California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Arizona and Idaho, thanks to volunteer pilots in a holiday airlift organized by Wings of Rescue, a voluntary pet rescue organization. The group helps place the animals in loving homes.
The take-off is planned for Van Nuys Airport on Friday morning, and other lift-offs are from San Francisco, Bakersfield and Palm Springs.
The dogs are "of all shapes and sizes that have gotten a holiday reprieve from a certain death sentence," according to the charity. They will be transported via private aircraft to safety and came from numerous area animal shelters.
The private planes will be bearing the Wings of Rescue logo rescue and the tag line, “Flying Home.” All of the pilots are volunteering their time and their planesfor this enormous effort.
Wings of Rescue, founded by Los Angeles resident and private pilot Yehuda Netanel, of Woodland Hills, and is made up of an all-volunteer organization of pilots who have combined a passion for flying with a desire to save shelter animals from euthanasia. Netanel himself, an owner of six dogs, says that one day he came to the realize “every day, amazing dogs awake to their last day on Earth" and he wanted to do something about it.
This group has become involved by lending support and volunteers. Other sponsors include Bob Smith BMW and Wells Faro Bank.
See some of the dogs and cats in the gallery above and stay tuned to Patch for photos and video.
Kudos to Wings of Rescue for doing an amazing, generous job for these animals! There is a special place in heaven for people like you!
I've been a volunteer with local shelters since 1995; I know the truth about these transports and others that are done in vans and cars, where many dogs are crammed into vehicles that are driven in "legs" and some die en route. Though the people are well-meaning, where do these dogs really end up? Overcrowded shelters? Labs? Fighting dog bait? There is no follow-up proof that they are going to "loving homes." There is a crisis of overpopulation everywhere in the U.S. - "other parts of California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Arizona and Idaho" are full of unwanted animals. Taking animals from LA exacerbates the crisis in destination cities. They have to make room, so do they kill the animals they already have in THEIR pounds? The real truth is that LA is shipping these animals to god-knows-where with no accountability. LA does not count them in the statistics, making their kill numbers look lower and their "live release rate" look higher. It's all about perception, never about reality. If our well-paid GMs in LA - Brenda Barnette included - were doing a proper job of outreach, education, mobile adoptions, spaying and neutering, enforcement of our laws regarding selling and breeding, our problems would not require shipping animals to unknown fates. It looks warm and fuzzy, but isn't the whole story. It's just sad.
I'd be really interested in knowing the fate of those animals. The bulldog - how did he fare on the flight? Did he make it? What about the tiny pups? What about the ones with upper respiratory illness? (A large percentage of them contract such airborne illness in LA pounds.) And cats? The highest kill rates in ALL shelters are for cats and pits. And they're shipping them? These animals pose specific health challenges for flight - or any transport, for that matter. Are their special needs considered? Perhaps this reporter should do some diligence and write a follow-up story on these animals. And ask more questions.
Maybe we should spend money rehabbing and rescuing dogs like this before dumping LA dogs up there.
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