Shelter Dogs Take Flight To New Homes

This was pulled from Fox4KC.com.

Susan HilandMeagan Kelleher, Web Producer
November 25, 2009

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. - Some dogs are getting a first class ticket to a new life. Pilots across the country volunteer their time to fly rescue animals to shelters or foster homes and eventually a new home. For most of the animals, it's a life-saving flight.

At the Lee's Summit airport, Sam Taylor gets ready for a flight. Mary Jane Wilder-Hardee with the Midwest Shiba Inu Rescue brings Natasha to the airport. Natasha was dumped one night at a shelter in Chillicothe. She has a bad back leg that will probably be removed.

Wilder-Hardee said she has been shuttled around and is ready for a permanent home. Natasha will eventually be flown to Minnesota, where she'll go to a foster home and be eventually adopted out to a new home.

All this is made possible thanks to Pilot N Paws. Shelters and rescue groups network to decide which animals should be moved, and where they have a better chance of being adopted. Then Pilots N Paws steps in, to get the animals where they need to go.

Natasha was flown to Moberly, Mo. where pilot Chris Leiting and his son Tanner will take her on to Minnesota. But Taylor doesn't fly back to the metro empty handed. He picks up another shiba inu whose owner went into a nursing home.

Some may think flying rescue animals is a little over the top, but many rescue animals are older, or have medical problems.

The non-profit organization has more than 1,000 pilots nationwide who make the trips. In the metro there are eight Pilot N Paws pilots, including Sarah Owens. She's flown nine times, rescuing 24 animals.

Owens just returned from Manhattan, Kan with Odie, a lovable mixed terrier who was schedule to be euthanized. Odie will fly on to a "no-kill" shelter in Des Moines. A Heinz-57 Pet Rescue monitors over crowded shelters to save animals like Odie from certain death and now Odie will ultimately be placed in a new home.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• pilots
• paws
• animal
• resuce

[iowahorseman]

Thanks for posting this dave... been looking for it since they took it off the Fox 4 website