Woo Hoo!!! 25 dogs and 25 cats flown to freedom yesterday! Thank you so much to Christina Morgan, Clif Simonson and Curtis Warn for donating their amazing aircraft and time! 50 dogs and cats will get a 2nd chance just in time for Christmas!
Kern County, California is not generally a good place to be a homeless cat or dog, with a huge animal abandonment problem, many former pets dumped to forage on their own, and an overburdened public shelter that many animals do not exit alive. There are dedicated animal lovers in the area, though, doing what they can to save the lives of unwanted pets and their offspring, working either individually or through rescue organizations.
Wings of Rescue, a program where pilots donate their time and the use of their planes, has been busy this month with several Holiday Animal Airlift flights that have transported hundreds of animals from places where they might have been killed, to places where they will find loving homes. Earlier in December, over 350 animals were flown from Los Angeles to shelters and rescues in several states.
On Friday, 25 cats and kittens, and 25 dogs were airlifted from Epic Jet Center in Bakersfield to begin new lives to the north. The flight landed in Bellingham, Washington Some of the dogs went to Oregon, while the remainder of the dogs accompanied all of the kittens and cats to their destination in Canada.
“It’s just something near and dear to my heart and my way of giving back. One little tiny way of giving back,” says Epic Jet center owner Erin Posey.
The kittens and cats all came from the Kern County Animal Shelter. “Unfortunately there aren’t enough homes in Kern County for all of our cats so if it weren’t for operations like this, these cats probably would have been euthanized,” said Sally Breyer, of Kern County Animal Control.
The dogs were all rescues, either pulled from Death Row or found abandoned and wandering the streets. “There’s parts in Kern County that are so literally overwhelmed with dogs just running loose. Dogs and cats. So they come from everywhere basically,” said Diane Ybarra, who fosters dogs and finds it bittersweet when it’s time for them to leave for their forever homes. “There’s some that you cry when you are kenneling them up and sending them away.”
Sally Breyer said, “It’ll be a Merry Christmas for all of these kitties and all of the people they go to and all of the people at the Kern County Animal Control.”
Wings of Rescue has another two flights scheduled for next week.
See also, our post from December 9, 2012, Wings of Rescue: Holiday Animal Airlift.
Every one of the people transporting animals to safe places in the country are very special angels.
God bless them.
You are not only Wings of Rescue, you are Wings of Angels. What wonderful work you do!!