2022 has been another amazing year for Dog Is My CoPilot. This is our 10th Anniversary, we rescued our 25,000th animal, and we now have a second rescue plane, ‘The Sequel’!  We have so much to be thankful for and look forward to sharing our journey with you.

Dog Is My CoPilot began after the depths of tragedy. Founder, President and Chief Pilot Peter Rork, lost his wife unexpectedly in 2012 and was encouraged by a friend to do something to deliver from his grief. Peter, a lifelong pilot, began using his small personal plane to transport a few animals at a time from a shelter in San Francisco to a shelter near his home in Wyoming. After visiting a municipal shelter in Merced, CA where over 90% of the animals were being euthanized, he realized more needed to be done. He soon began transporting animals in his small personal plane 4-5 days a week, but the demand for his rescue flights continued to grow.

To purchase a larger plane, Peter mortgaged his house, gave the money to Dog Is My CoPilot, and went from rescuing twenty dogs at a time to up to two hundred and fifty dogs. Dog Is My CoPilot purchased “The Big Dog”, a Cessna Caravan turbine aircraft, from a Canadian mining company. Peter knew the plane was meticulously maintained, but visually it was a disaster. “Chipped paint, ripped seats, it was perfect!! The dogs won’t care what the inside looks like!”, Peter recalls saying. Around this time, Executive Director, Kara Pollard joined the team, Petco Love became a major sponsor and Dog Is My CoPilot scaled up from rescuing hundreds of animals a month to thousands of animals a year!

Tonto captures the heart of many people

One of our long time partners is the small six kennel Presidio Shelter, in far west Texas.  There are many stories of dogs coming from this amazing rural shelter, like the story of a dog named Tonto. This 80lb love bug was surrendered with paperwork that listed the reason: “don’t want him anymore”.  In the shelter, despite being great with people, low energy, and co-kenneled with female dogs with no problems, he languished. No adopter, no foster, no rescue partner.  Tonto was at the Shelter for fourteen months until the City said it was time. If he wasn’t adoptable, he had to be euthanized. 

That motivated our partner, Heather Hall who runs The Underground dog Rescue to step into action quick!.   Without alternatives, in Tonto came as Heather’s foster dog; he didn’t miss a beat. Happy, housetrained, mellow, snuggly, 100% non confrontational with any of the dogs and respectful of the cats. Shared his stuff, didn’t pull on a leash, took treats nicely, slept in his crate, was just so damn happy for a quiet place, a regular routine and a soft couch. We could not have been prouder. He snored. His tongue didn’t fit in his mouth. He had the softest ears. We loved him.

“It can be almost impossible to assess dogs in the shelter environment. For 14 months of waiting there, within 3 weeks of being fostered, Tonto had his rescue ticket with Dog Is My CoPilot our a partner in Bosie Idaho Bosie Bully Breed Rescue. He was set up for success in the best way possible. Fostering can be hard – emotionally and practically. Sometimes they eat your shoes, or cry all night, or pee on your couch. But it’s the surest way to save a dog’s a life, and to have the amazing experience of being supported by so many other people who see your effort and help get your foster dog home. I’ll never forget Tonto, or all the people who came together to give a great dog in a high risk shelter at the middle of nowhere the life he deserves. They understand how bittersweet it is. It will be so amazing when I see Tonto again, finished with all the transitions, safe and secure in the love of his people, snoozing without a worry in the world, on a couch that he knows as home.”

The need for animal transportation services is rising across the country 

Although the pandemic initially led to an increase in the number of animals being adopted, over the last 12-18 months adoption rates have decreased. Shelters are overcrowded because of an increase in the number of homeless animals, a lag in spay/neuter services, and a shortage of animal shelter workers nationwide. This has been a tough year for animal shelters all over the country. Shelters are full and adoption rates are down. The employees in these shelters are working tirelessly to save the pets that walk through their doors. These shelter workers are the true heroes and we want them to know their dedication never goes unrecognized by our team. We are so grateful to each and every person that has devoted their life to saving shelter pets.  Be sure to watch this heartwarming story created by one of our partners, One Tail at a Time PDX. 

We are responding to the crisis 

We could not sit by and watch the crisis go from bad to worse. In 2022, we realized that the time had come to once again scale up, and obtain another aircraft. “The Sequel,” a second Cessna Caravan, became part of our family in June and is based in Texas. The Sequel will have a large impact in the Southwest where there are too few services and a growing population of stray animals. Looking forward into 2023, there will be two planes in the sky, five to seven days a week, transporting animals out of our nation’s overcrowded shelters.  

Yuki needed a rescue after being abandoned at an overcrowded Texas shelter

Yuki, who was found dirty, skinny, and terrified, was one of the lucky pets we saved this year. 

She’s a powerful reminder of why our work is so important. At risk for euthansia in an overcrowded shelter in Texas, she was adopted by a loving family in the northwest just a few days after her transport flight. Thanks to our Texas shelter partners and One Tail at a Time PDX for working together to make sure  Yuki found her family! 

We live a magical life with Yuki.  We are all still learning with each other, there are times that she gets triggered and scared, but we scoop her up and love her and she knows it’s going to be ok. We are so lucky that she was rescued.  Not only is her life better, but our lives are better because of her. Thank you”, Angela and Peter Panagakos, the humans to Yuki Joon. 

With two planes flying every day, we needed ground staff to ensure all of the pets have a smooth ride 

The help we needed came from two long time volunteers: Lynette Duford and Frank Maresca. Lynette Duford has joined the Dog Is My CoPilot team to help with the logistics and planning for our rescue flights. Coordinating with shelters, volunteers, and airports, not to mention changing all of the plans when weather impacts our flight schedule, is a full time job. With her help, Dog Is My CoPilot has become more efficient and is saving more animals than ever before. 

Frank Maresca started as a volunteer pilot and quickly started to spend the most time of any pilot in the captain’s chair. While we was logging thousands of miles in the air every month, we saw the need for better coordination with our team of ten volunteer pilots. Frank’s work, organizing the pilots and coordinating the maintenance schedules of our two aircraft, helps keep Dog Is My CoPilot wheels up and loaded with as many animals as possible.

Recently we rescued our 25,000th animal Bunches

He is a big dog, weighing in at over 80 pounds, and like most big dogs, is loyal, loving, and compassionate. Bunches proves most stereotypes about big dogs wrong. After waiting over a year in a Texas shelter, it only took one rescue flight and twenty four hours for Bunches to find a loving forever home in Utah. Bunches is another inspiring example of how a single flight can change the lives of both animals and humans alike.

Our hearts are full as the end of the rescue season draws near

In ten short years, the growth of Dog Is My CoPilot has created many memories and has helped place tens of thousands of animals into loving homes across the country. Looking ahead to 2023, we will be offering more than one hundred and fifty rescue flights, at no charge, to our partner shelters, saving the lives of more than 5,000 dogs and cats. In the future there will be new partnerships across the country, many new volunteers on the ground and in the air, and more smiles and tails wagging than ever before!  

From everyone at Dog Is My CoPilot, have a wonderful holiday season! 

Thank you for being part of our Dog Is My CoPilot family, we are so grateful to our community of supporters, our shelter and rescue partners, our volunteer pilots and everyone out their working tirelessly to save dogs and cats! Happy Holidays. 

📸 Laura Verhaeghe: https://www.lauraverhaeghe.com/index

Last week we were wheels up with two very special passengers! Thanks to a wonderful team in El Paso, Texas and Portland, OR, we flew rescue animals number 24,000 and 24,001, because let’s get real, it’s hard just to choose one adorable rescue to celebrate!

In early June, the Sequel (our second plane) made its first rescue flight with a new volunteer pilot. We were also able to connect two new partners in Oklahoma and North Dakota. The Sequel is already allowing us to rescue even more animals amidst an ever dire shelter crisis across our nation. According to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary at this very moment, about 100,000 more dogs and cats in U.S. shelters are at risk of being killed compared to this time last year.  Because of the pandemic, more pets are entering shelters, fewer pets are being adopted, shelters are short-staffed.

Expanding DIMC requires more volunteer pilots.

Since we now have two planes, potentially doubling our rescue flights, we needed to find some more volunteer pilots. One of our newest pilots is Jason Wojteczko. When Jason is not flying, he is thinking about flying. He comes to us with over 30 years of aviation experience in both private and military backgrounds. Jason currently operates an international aircraft delivery company called Compass Rose Aviation. He also served in the US military for 23 years with multiple combat tours. Learn more about Jason, his four chihuahuas, and the rest of our pilots at https://dogcopilot.org/meet-the-team

 

New partners in Oklahoma and North Dakota

Ardmore Animal Care in Ardmore, Oklahoma is a brand new animal shelter partner for our rescue team. Our rescue flight picked up 32 animals from this shelter, and another 10 from Tulsa Animal Society of which were a mama and 9 new puppies that were not able to make an earlier transport. Thankfully, an amazing foster family in Enid, OK were able to watch them till our rescue flight in mid June. Transporting pets allows Ardmore Animal Care to have a 90% save rate which is incredible considering the animal welfare crisis in our national sheltering system. We transported this plane load to Souris Valley Animal Shelter, another new shelter partner in Minot, North Dakota. These two shelters are part of a mentoring program established by the Best Friends Animal Society. We are thrilled to be able to offer free transportation services to these amazing organizations.

The State of the Animal Sheltering System 

As we talk to our partners about the need for transportation services for their animals, we have found that there are a few issues that are contributing to this crisis in the animal shelter system.  First, the COVID-19 pandemic paused many animal spay and neutering services. This has created a backlog of treatment and an increase in animal intake to many shelters. Second, as people have gone back to work and “normal” returns, adoptions across the country have slowly decreased while the intake of new animals has increased. Finally, compounding the already very full shelters, there are not enough people to work in these shelters. The staffing crisis across the country has not spared the animal shelter system. New and old partners alike have the same problem, everyone is short staffed. Before the pandemic, shelters could staff multiple positions from basic animal care to veterinary staff giving a full spectrum of care for rescue animals. Now shelters barely have enough staff to care for the many animals that enter their shelter. Many animals are suffering because there is just not enough staff or resources to support all the pets in their care. Sadly, animal shelters, primarily in the south, have had to euthanize many animals because of lack of space. They are confronted with these difficult decisions for the most at-risk animals in their care.

What you can do

You can help your local shelter or rescue in many ways, including monetary donations, volunteering your time at a shelter or even becoming a foster family.  Fostering an animal is the easiest way to alleviate some of the stress on the shelter system. It is going to take help from everyone to get through this crisis and we know our community can help! Now is a great time to adopt a pet and find all the benefits of having an animal in your life.

Dog Is My CoPilot started in 2012 and soon became a victim of its own success. After just a few short years, we acquired a larger Cessna 208B Grand Caravan — aka “The Big Dog” — that was retrofitted from a 12-passenger plane to one that can carry hundreds of pets. The Big Dog and our team of nine volunteer pilots allows us to transport animals virtually everyday during our flying season.  

Today, we are thrilled to announce that we purchased a second airplane to transport twice as many pets from overcrowded shelters to new adoption partners. Over 1 million animals are euthanized every year in America. The shelters and rescues that they come from are underserved, overpopulated, and often forgotten; these are the organizations we are determined to help!  We have seen demand for our services steadily increase over the last few years so we’ve been exploring ways to increase our capacity to serve more shelters. 

To celebrate our expansion, a very generous supporter and his dog Abba (Take A Chance On Me) have stepped forward to match, dollar-for-dollar, every gift up to an incredible $25,000! We’d love to have your support to help keep our new plane “Wheels Up”! You can make a gift online or send a check to P.O. Box 3399 Jackson, Wyoming 83001. 

“We believe that collaboration is key to saving more lives and we are humbled by the generosity of our supporters who believe in our mission to help save as many animals as possible,” said Peter Rork, M.D., Chief Pilot and President of DIMC. “We hope our expansion will inspire more people to work together for the greater good of our animal friends. These dogs think we’re saving them but at the end of the day, they save us. They give us the chance to do good and help, to live with a greater purpose than ourselves.”

Our rescue flights are at no cost to the shelters and adoption centers we partner with. We rely on donations to  fuel our rescue flights. The cost of airline fuel has doubled in the last year, and our flights from southern Texas can be as long as 1300 nautical miles to receiving organizations.  We are also paying for ramp fees, facility fees, plane parking for overnights so that we can get an early start to our day!  Our success is due to our community of supporters and our dedicated team of shelter, adoption centers and volunteers across the country. 

We are planning to base the new plane in Texas to help support even more shelters across the state that are trying desperately to bring down the euthanasia rate. We are not only doubling the number of flights, but are doubling the number of lives we can save. Our receiving and adoption partner network is expanding to the northeast with flights scheduled to New England and New York.

Why are we basing our new plane in Texas?

• It is estimated that 150,000 animals are still needlessly dying in Texas shelters every year.
• According to our partners Austin Pets Alive, it costs a fraction of their total per animal to serve as a distributor to shelters and rescues as it does to take them all in and do all the work themselves before adoption.
• Texas is located in the center of the country and flying to the Northeast from south Texas is about the same distance as a flight to Seattle, Washington. 

“We estimate that approximately 150,000 pets are euthanized each year in Texas alone, but there is a national crisis,” said Clare Callison, Director of National Pet Supply & Demand at Austin Pets Alive!. 

In most northern U.S. communities, there is an overabundance of adopters.  Ground transport is not always a realistic or safe option to transport pets long distances. It can take days of travel in ground vehicles to reach areas with high demand for adoptable animals.  Cost effective air transport is a lifesaving tool for pets in need and will help assist shelters in Texas (and beyond) work towards their goal of becoming no-kill states.

The flights we are coordinating are large and complicated! There are weeks of preparation leading up to each flight. It starts with animal selection and receiving partners communicate with shelters through photos, videos, and behavior assessments to select pets that will be transported.  Each animal is given a health check by a veterinarian, making sure they are healthy for the flight. All the flight kennels have to be appropriately sized, correctly tagged with our color code system and animals ready at the airport for transport. Our shelter and rescue partners are the true heroes; working tirelessly to help the pets in the care find homes.

We are very grateful for The Gary E. Milgard Family Foundations, Petco Love, Lulu’s Fund and our special furry co-pilots Jack and Laika for making our second plane purchase possible.  Keep an eye on your email and future blogs for updates, pictures of our new plane, partner shelters, and of course, the dogs and cats that find loving homes. Thank you! 

Dog Is My CoPilot is a busy and growing organization. We are flying thousands of animals every year from hundreds of locations across the country.  Coordinating volunteer pilots, working with shelter and rescue partners, and coordinating animals that will be transported, is a time consuming task. Our Executive Director, Kara Pollard, has been the only person managing all those tasks and running our organization since she came on board more than five years ago. That is until now!

Welcome to the team, Lynette!

We would like to introduce the newest member of our team, Lynette Duford. She will be joining us as our Rescue Flight Coordinator. We are planning to save even more animals in 2022 through our rescue flights. This will require coordinating additional flights with shelters and we need extra support with all those logistics. Lynette’s passion for animal welfare began growing up on a dairy farm in Montana. Her parents encouraged her love of animals from an early age as she brought home every stray or abandoned animal that crossed her path…even baby mice! Although Lynette’s education and professional work has been in the health and fitness industry, she has always been an active volunteer with rescue groups. She spent the last 17 years part of Life Savers Animal Rescue (LSAR) where she and her husband Dana have fostered many animals focusing on seniors or dogs with medical issues at the end of their lives. They have five dogs of their own, several who have been passengers on our flights.   We are thrilled to welcome her to our DIMC team. Keep an eye out for her on the ground during our rescue missions throughout the year.

One of the many logistical challenges Lynnette will face is the need for animal crates. The plastic vari kennels that we  use on the Big Dog are reused hundreds of times on our flights. The crates can be easily stacked on the Big Dog, broken down for storage, and sterilized between flights. The challenge is returning the empty crates from the previous flights. These need to get from the receiving adoption centers to the overcrowded shelters in the south before the animals can be transported. Many times we can collect  these empty crates when we head back to another source location. Our volunteer pilots make stops heading south and pick up empty crates and supplies to bring to the next source location.   This will be one of the many tasks Lyntte will be coordinating with our partners and pilots! 

We used these crates last week when we rescued 50 dogs from our partners at El Paso Animal Services and brought them to Logan, Utah. Unfortunately, because of the weather, we could not get the dogs all the way to their final destination of Jackson, Wyoming, so the Animal Adoption Center, based in Jackson, met us in Utah. They even brought some puppuccinos for our smallest passengers to ease their travel anxiety. With the help of another local partner, Cache Humane Society, the animals were unloaded from the Big Dog and reloaded into a van for the final leg of the journey. Partnerships are saving lives. We are grateful for the opportunity to be the link between so many amazing shelter and rescue organizations across the country. It is inspiring to watch all these partners work together.

Here’s how you can be part of the solution:

Whether you work with an animal shelter or just love pets, anyone can get involved with animal rescue. Volunteering at your local shelter is a great place to start. Many organizations are looking for folks to help with daily chores like cleaning facilities, walking animals, and feeding all the pups. Fostering an animal is a great way to help relieve the stress animals face in an overcrowded shelter. Spending time with animals relieves stress in humans too. Fostering can be the difference between life and death for senior dogs and cats that can take extra time to adopt. We always encourage adoption but please only adopt if you are able to commit to the needs of the animal you bring into your life. Finally you can donate.  Animal shelters across the country are in need of funds to house, feed and maintain their shelters in every community in our nation.