To our friends who know that killing adoptable animals is not the "kindness" that humans or animals need!
It was quite an 'exciting' flight over the Sierras, the Cascades, and then the Canadian Rockies before we made it to Edmonton last Saturday night. Breathtaking scenery -- though I admit I was more concerned with the lovely sound of my single engine continuing to run smoothly as I picked our way through those rugged peaks! All of the dogs did great, even with the afternoon turbulence. Thanks for your wonderful generous support, which is what makes us able to continue dedicating our time, energies, and skills to this work. (Click here for a heartwarming video of this weekend's arrival in Edmonton!)
Right now, there are at least 50 healthy, highly adoptable dogs in Devore (San Bernardino county, CA) who need out before this weekend or they're toast. And almost that many in Fresno county in the same dire straits. Next week, there will be at least 50 more! Unless you're there or on some of these distribution lists, you'd find it hard to believe how many perfectly wonderful animals wind up in these "shelters" (NOT!) and are killed within five days! No 'adoption day' for these dogs, not even time for anyone to come on the weekend to see them! It's going to take more than one transport flight per month even to begin to get the best of them out alive, especially since many of the dogs are medium to large in size, which means we can't always take 15-20 at a time like we can with the little ones.
We have rescues from all over Washington and Canada willing to take these dogs right now, but we don't have funds to get them all there. Flights, as opposed to long drives, are still the most efficient and economical and comfortable way to take the animals these long distances. And our small single-engine planes with high payload capacity can carry the most animals for the least operational costs.
But we're working on ways to do even better. For starters, we're actively seeking other volunteer pilots with planes to help on some or all of these flights. Groups like Pilots 'n Paws are hard to pin down because their volunteer schedules are so changeable, but whenever possible we try to team up with them in order to transport more dogs at one time, and increase safety by having more than one plane flying these rugged and remote routes.
In the end, the number of trips we can make and the number of dogs we can save really just comes down to how much support we get from people like you to cover our fuel and other airplane operating costs. We'll always offer our services at no cost, but it takes fuel and oil and mandatory safety inspections and maintenance to keep us flying On Wings Of Care!
With the transport capabilities in place, and the rescuers and fosters and adopters ready, we want to start emptying out the tragic high-kill shelters that still exist in southern California. This, together with media exposure, is what we need to successfully pressure county legislators to change the practices at these shelters, to allocate their funds more wisely, to begin allowing more use of public volunteers and public donations in ways that have proven so very successful in hundreds of no-kill shelters across the country. In this age, there is no excuse for cruel and needless mass killings of animals that are healthy and highly adoptable as companions to humans.
Please help us spread the word, share the joy, and save more animals and people by bringing their hearts together for life!
Many thanks, again, for all your help.
-- Bonny, Dave, Deb, Brayton, Brett, plus hundreds of fellow rescuers and over a thousand critters (so far!) who are here and saving lives thanks to On Wings Of Care!
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