It is unfortunate to know that California has the largest population of stray and street dogs. Many shelters are are overcrowded, and euthanasia is common.
Last November 20, 2015, Wings of Rescue www.wingsofrescue.org, a non-profit of volunteer pilots, organized the largest life-saving airlift of at-risk shelter pets – 1,000 dogs and 100 cats via 22 airplanes. These shelter pets were flown from Southern California to their new no-kill shelter homes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Wings of Rescue was founded in 2011 by Cindy Smith, a real estate broker, and Yehuda Netanel, a real-estate developer. Both are recreational pilots and dog enthusiasts. They founded Wings of Rescue with the goal of having pilots use their planes to save animals from kill shelters. To date, Wings of Rescue has flown and relocated more than 16,500 shelter pets to freedom.
Wings of Rescue Holiday Airlift was featured in The All-Star Dog Rescue Celebration show last Thanksgiving. The Holiday Airlift event was honored to have the largest airlift of its kind in the history of Wings of Rescue, and the largest on record in the world. What a wonderful event and we hope the 1000 dogs and 100 cats find their forever homes.
Thank you SO much for sharing this story. Mom just contacted them to see if she could help. She’s an Airline Transport rated pilot. What a wonderful thing to do.
Abby Lab