Puppy Rescue Mission

Local pilot flies puppies to a ‘no-kill’ shelter

BY JULIE PRISCO jprisco@antonmediagroup.com

For many years, healthy dogs and cats have been euthanized in animal shelters due to overcrowding. During the ’80s and ’90s, movements began to stop shelters that put down animals for reasons other than severe or untreatable illnesses. The movement coined the term ‘no-kill’ to ask communities to take measures to save all healthy and treatable pets from unnecessary euthanasia.

According to Shelter Animals

Count, a national database that began gathering shelter data in 2011, adoption numbers have increased exponentially over the last decade. States across the U.S have different laws in place regarding animal euthanasia that regulate who can perform animal euthanasia and what reasons animal euthanasia can be performed.

Best Friends Animal Society compiled a database of all U.S. shelters to collect data on how many animals are entering these shelters, the array of outcomes for each animal, and how many animals need to be saved each year for that shelter and community to reach ‘no-kill’ status. Based on their 2019 study, deaths in shelters have decreased by 10 percent compared to the previous year and the number of no-kill shelters and communities continues to increase. Best Friends Society has determined the top five states that contribute to more than half of animal euthanasia are California, Texas, North Carolina, Texas and Louisiana.

To help combat ‘kill’ shelters’ unnecessary euthanasia, organizations have formed to assist in rescuing animals. Pilots N Paws is one of the many nonprofits in the U.S that work to relocate animals to a ‘no-kill’ shelter.

Pilots N Paws is a nonprofit organization that matches volunteers interested in rescuing, sheltering and adopting animals with pilots and plane owners willing to transport animals.

In mid-February, Port Washington resident Milton Josephs flew a rescue mission for Pilots N Paws to bring ten dogs to a ‘no-kill’ shelter in Massachusetts.

Josephs, a Port Washington resident since 2002, has been flying planes since he was 18 and flew for the Air Force in England. Now, about 35 years later, Josephs has a career in education but flies on the side for fun.

In 2009, Josephs flew his first mission with Pilots N Paws with his friend, who found the organization online. To match volunteers and pilots, Pilots N Paws provides a space for pilots and animal advocates to come together and arrange rescue flights.

According to the Pilots N Paws website, “through the Pilots N Paws discussion board, volunteers can exchange information regarding animal transports, coordinate and schedule transports, share rescue stories and recruit volunteers. The discussion board is also intended mission in February brought a mom and her nine three-week-old puppies to a ‘no-kill’ shelter in Hyannis, MA.

“Those puppies that we brought back, they were in a kill shelter in North Carolina. The rescue organizations down there, they’re given maybe a week by the shelter to find transport,” explained Josephs.

Since missions can be thousands of miles long, pilots will go onto the discussion forum and coordinate with another pilot to meet them halfway to do the second leg of the trip

“[My mission] was actually a twopronged flight,” said Josephs. “Another friend of mine has an airplane. So he flew from New Jersey down to North Carolina and picked up the mom and her nine three-week-old puppies. Then flew back to New Jersey. And then, another friend of mine and I flew to New Jersey and picked them up. We took them to Hyannis, Cape Cod, MA, where there was an organization there that came and picked them up.”

Pilots that own planes can take their plane on the rescue mission, other pilots can rent a plane from a flight school. For Josephs’ mission, his friend from Bridgeport, CT, owns a plane that he took across the Long Island Sound to pick Josephs up.

“It’s always fast when you’ve got two pilots flying together. It’s an excellent load off,” said Josephs.

Pilots aren’t the only ones who can volunteer with this organization. Josephs shared that people volunteer to work on the ground.

“[Volunteers] can drive the animals, let’s say you live in North Carolina somewhere and there’s a mission you can drive not far,” said Josephs. “You can volunteer to bring animals to the airport from the kill shelter. They even have people that drive around and got pilots as well.” for participants to develop friendships and relationships and to get to know one another because we are all working toward a common goal, to save the lives of innocent animals.”

Although Josephs hasn’t participated in a rescue mission in a few years, he is excited to look into flying more in the future.

Pilots N Paws rescues dogs and cats. Josephs shared that while he was browsing the discussion board someone was looking to transport goats. Josephs’ recent

“This mission really sparked my interest in doing it again,” said Josephs. Josephs shared some photos on Facebook to share the privilege of flying for Pilots N Paws with others and help bring awareness to the nonprofit.

“It’s a charity and they obviously need money to operate their website and things like that,” said Josephs. “So that’s why I put it on Facebook, not for self-gratification, it was more to spread the message and the word out.”

Visit pilotsnpaws.org to learn more about the organization and find out how you can support its efforts.