For 31 dogs in Southern California, this week included something most shelter dogs probably don’t have on their schedule: a flight.
On September 24, San Bernardino County Animal Care sent 31 dogs aboard a Wings of Rescue aircraft, marking the largest flight the county has organized through the partnership so far.
It was their sixth rescue flight together. With this latest group, the partnership has now transported 71 dogs out of county shelters and into other rescue networks where they’ll have new opportunities to find homes.
But getting 31 dogs ready for takeoff involved much more than loading crates onto a plane.
Short-term fosters helped make the flight bigger
Before departure, local residents stepped in as temporary foster families for dogs preparing to travel.
Instead of spending that waiting period in the shelter, the dogs had homes where they could stay while Animal Care coordinated the transport.
That temporary help did more than give the dogs somewhere comfortable to stay. According to the county, foster support helped Animal Care include more dogs on this flight than on any of its previous Wings of Rescue transports.
For the fosters, it didn’t require committing to months of care. They filled one specific gap in the rescue process and helped another dog make the flight.
Why fly shelter dogs somewhere else?
Shelters don’t all face the same pressures at the same time.
One community may have more dogs arriving than available kennel space, while shelters and rescue organizations elsewhere may have more capacity to take animals in and connect them with adopters.
Wings of Rescue helps bridge that gap by transporting animals from overcrowded shelters and disaster-affected areas to partner organizations with more placement opportunities.
For the dogs, that means a new pool of potential adopters.
For the shelter they leave behind, it means an open kennel for the next animal who needs one.
The trip also takes plenty of behind-the-scenes coordination. The Animals aRe First Fund, or ARFF, supported this transport by providing hard-sided travel crates for the dogs.
A flight is a next step, not the finish line
The 31 dogs didn’t board with guaranteed homes waiting at the other end.
A rescue transport gives them another opportunity to be seen and adopted, while easing pressure on the shelters they leave behind.
That’s what makes this flight significant: foster families, shelter staff and rescue partners all played a part in getting 31 dogs to their next opportunity.
Thirty-one dogs took off.
And for each of them, the next part of the story started somewhere new.
Source: San Bernardino County Animal Care. Hero image is an illustrative representation created for The Fetch, not a photograph of the Sept. 24 transport.
