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Pilots N Paws
Nice read about a club featured here under the Advertisers, Clubs and Groups page.
Volunteer Pilots Help Doomed Dogs Get a Second Chance at Life
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/volunteer-pilots-help-doomed-dogs-get-a-second-115855212162.html -
12 Replies
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You do realize two PC members created Pilots N Paws?
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For those of you who don’t know Jon was one of them and he even made the National Enquirer!!
I will let Jon explain that !!Diane
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Debi Boies and I started PNP.
Until I used my plane to bring her and her husband Bob a rescue Dobie I had no clue there was such a ned to save animals from being killed. They call it euthanasia, putting them to sleep, etc but they are being killed in alarming numbers just because people won’t spay or neuter, mostly in the south. Yet in northern states there are people willing to adopt rescues but to get them from the south up to new homes is tough.
They traditionally have moved animals via car relays where volunteers pick up animals at prearranged locations drive them for an hour or two and transfer them to another car they meet which does the same thing. The relays are tough to set up, are very stressful for the animals and take a day or two. The logistics are a nightmare.
So I started carrying animals in my plane. Debi knew the rescue side of the equation and I understood the aviation side. I could pick up a load of dogs (as many as 24 at one time), and in a couple of hours deliver them to a rescue that would get them adopted. The same trip, if it could be set up might take 10 or more legs by car and take a day at the minimum.
Once Debi and I had the process worked out we created a web site, became publicity hounds to get the word out that we needed pilot volunteers (hence articles in almost every TV outlet and print media publication) and we were off and flying. I “retired” when I sold my plane, but Debi continues working hard to this day. She says PNP now has over 4000 pilot volunteers.
As soon as she reaches 10,000 pilot volunteers she is going to eat a raw oyster.( Debi and Bob, along with Roger and Micki and me and Di created the first oysterfest.)
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Nice job. It’s a good thing that you have done.
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Oysterfest was/is a good idea too!
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Great cause Jon!
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Pilots ‘n Paws made the “one more thing” segment on The Five tonight. Pretty cool! Anyone else catch it?
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Jon, I had no idea you were involved in this. I have a lot of friends that still fly missions. About ten years ago, I flew down to Tyler, TX to bring a pit bull named Jake back to Kansas City. That was very rewarding. Thanks for giving me the chance to do that!
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
I “retired” when I sold my plane. But I had transported 534 animals by that time. My partner Debi Boies is still holding down the fort doing a fantastic job. Quite a while back her husband Bob told me PnP had over 5000 volunteer pilots.
When the number reaches 10,000 pilots Debi promised me she would eat a raw oyster.
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Wonderful cause and incredibly selfless, Jon!
We used to volunteer (Marketing) for the Humane Society…while still working. Only problem was wanted to bring all the little critters home to join the pack! 🙂
Nothing on the scale of what you did and Debi still does! Bravo!
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I hope someday there will be no need for volunteers such as the Pilots N Paws pilots who are literally donating thousands of dollars of their time and use of planes. We need people to stop abusing animals and to bear the responsibility for their animals, such as spaying and neutering.
Adopt a rescue pup or volunteer to participate in transporting rescue animals from high kill areas of the country such as the south to areas where there are many forever homes available.
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This is great to know.
Tammie and I are on a third or fourth rescue. Our first was a male Pug that was living with a family that had rescued him, but they personally had two or three Pit Bulls. We did not think twice about taking that Pug which was our third Pug.
When we built our home in North Carolina one of the roofers mentioned that he had a femal balck lab chained up at this house. Not a good thing to say to Tammie. She made him get off of the roof and take her to the Lab. That labrador was unchained, put in Tammie’s van, and brought to our home. She was great. In honor of my grandfather a duck hunter who named all of his lab’s Splash, we did the same. She was a loving and gentle dog.
Our most recent rescue is a Yorkshire Terrier that Tammie found in a stall in a barn at a friends farm in Eastern Kentucky. Mind you that outside of Splash, our black lab, we have had nothing but Pug’s. Tammie always wanted a Terrier and she was not about to let this continue life in this barn. When she came home from her trip, and as I was under the kitchen sink repairing a water line, she comes in and tells me she has rescued a Yorkshire. Two years later he is the sweet spot in her life.
So folks, rescues are great, and worth every minute of the love that they give back to you.
R
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