IN THE NEWS
Former Las Cruces shelter dog to be in Puppy Bowl XVI
By Jacqueline Devine
Las Cruces Sun News
January 29, 2020
LAS CRUCES — A former Las Cruces shelter dog is heading for the small screen after being drafted in this year’s Puppy Bowl XVI. It’ll air Sunday on Animal Planet before the evening’s big game.
Dracula is an adorable 6-month-old, standard bull terrier mix who was impounded at Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley as a stray along with her mom, Meena, and her brother Biggie, on July 9, 2019.
Dog is my Copilot honored at Petco Foundation Lifesaving Awards
By Nicole Hamilton
Buckrail.com
November 9, 2019
JACKSON, Wyo. — On November 14, a local organization, Dog Is My CoPilot, will be honored along with six other organizations at the Petco Foundation’s Lifesaving Awards in San Diego, Calif.
Dog Is My CoPilot, which could also be referred to as one man with a small plane and a big heart, will be presented with the Love in Action Award. This award recognizes and celebrates an organization that put their love into action to save animals across the country.
Giant polar bear of a dog inspires so many people to help him find a home
By Nicole Hamilton
Best Friends
October 30, 2019
These words are often attributed to the German poet Goethe: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” They’re words Melissa Lipani just might have taken to heart the day she first saw Walter’s face.
How could she not? In one photo the pit bull and mastiff mix (who resembles a polar bear) looks tired and sad. That was taken the day he arrived at Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley (ASCMV) in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In the other, he looks happier. A kind smile lights up his face and his eyes reveal wisdom, along with a little playfulness.
Dogs fly to new homes
Buckrail
August 15, 2019
JACKSON, WYO – Wednesday morning at 11:30am Peter Rork aka “Pilot Peter” founder and chief pilot of Dog is My Copilot, landed at the Driggs-Reed Memorial Airport, with him 44 dogs on an adventure for new homes. Peter is relocating the dogs from the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control center in Phoniex, AZ. Driggs was not his first or his last stop of the day today, first stop was in Utah where a receiving agency took 25 of the 69 dogs. Wednesday afternoon he was headed to Spokane, WA as his final destination on this relocation mission. Peter donates 100% of his time, flying 2 flights a week April through October.
SA Dogs travel to find families in Colorado
KENS5 News San Antonio, June 6, 2019
Volunteers with San Antonio Pets Alive helped load several dogs this morning to be transported to Colorado to find forever homes.
Dogs take flight in hopes to find new homes
CBS4 News El Paso, April 18, 2019
Dog Is My CoPilot (DIMC) will be transporting nearly 60 dogs on Thursday to new shelters in hopes they’ll find their forever home.
DIMC is partnering with Tails from the Shelter, a division of Uncaged Paws, Inc., who rescue dogs and cats from overcrowded New Mexico municipal shelters, and El Paso Animal Services in El, Paso, Texas to fly dogs from the overcrowded animal shelters to animal rescue groups in Idaho that have adopters waiting for them.
Borderland shelter pets take flight to find their forever homes
KTSM 9 El Paso, April 18, 2019
Thursday morning 57 shelter dogs departed from the Las Cruces Airport in search of forever homes. The nonprofit organization called Dog Is My CoPilot flies shelter animals all over the country. Here in the Borderland, the shelters are all full. However, in Idaho, they have a low number of shelter animals, along with people eager to adopt.
Douglas Budget, October 25, 2018
Headlights from a Washington-bound transport van illuminated the roadway in the darkness along I-25 in the wee morning hours Saturday. Inside, Connie Bowen, Kammie Stone and Laura Barriga of Texas were on their way to Seattle in a cargo van. In the back, 47 dogs in kennels were on a ride from kill shelters in Texas to homes throughout the northwest and to the families who had adopted them.
Special Rescue Mission A Huge Success!
KPAX 8 Montana, October 21, 2018
In the early morning on Saturday, October 20th a vehicle transporting 47 dogs from Texas heading to Montana and Washington was involved in a car accident in Douglas, Wyoming. The dogs that were left stranded needed immediate transport and Dog Is My CoPilot was grateful to be able to help carry out this rescue mission on Sunday, October 21.
Jackson Hole News & Guide, August 8, 2018
Hobbs, a sturdy, older chocolate Lab, is like most dogs. He likes table scraps and head scratches, and he never goes long without wagging his tail.
50: Peter Rork, Dog is My CoPilot: Up in the Air for Animal Rescue & Welfare
Pawprint Animal Rescue Podcast, June 17, 2016
Peter Rork is Co-Founder and Chief Pilot for Dog is My CoPilot (DIMC). He and Co-Founder Judy Zimet have rescued over 4,000 dogs and cats by flying them from high kill shelters in places like California to the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions.
Dogs, Cats Fly To Colorado To Find New Homes
CBS4 News Denver
Nonprofits Fly Dogs and Cats to Colorado to Find Forever Homes
Dogs and cats in need of families got off a plane Sunday morning in Centennial. Officials hope those animals will be placed with people in Utah, Montana and Colorado.
More than 40 Dogs to be Flown to Idaho to Find Forever Homes
The San Antonio Pets Alive!’s transport program provides an outlet for dogs facing euthanasia at city shelters.
“The real hero isn’t the guy flying the dogs to safety, it’s the people who walk into the shelter every single day and deal with those animals,” said Peter Rork, the pilot, founder and president of Dog is my Co-Pilot.
San Antonio Homeless Dogs Flown Northwest for Adoption
Dr. Peter Rork, pilot and co-founder of Dog is my CoPilot, coordinates with San Antonio Pets Alive! staff members and volunteers as they put more than 40 former stray dogs on his Cessna bound for Idaho.
It was a bittersweet time Tuesday, just before dawn at Kelly Field Airport, for medical care technician Michael Belmarus.
Belmarus had to say goodbye to a chow mix named Aisling that he’d fostered for the past six weeks.
Nonprofit brings animals from overcrowded shelters to the Wood River Valley
‘Dog Is My CoPilot’: Taking Animal Rescue to New Heights
As often happens in life, tragedy turns into blessing. When Peter Rork’s wife passed away six years ago, her death gave the breath of life to thousands of dogs and cats which would otherwise have been euthanized.
‘Dog Is My CoPilot’: Giving New Lives To San Antonio Strays
It’s the pre-dawn hours at Port San Antonio Kelly Field and the scramble is on.
The challenge is to fit 49 dogs in their kennels into a single engine plane, a Cessna Caravan.
Flying Abandoned Animals to Safer Havens
“We fly animals — 80 percent dogs and 20 percent cats — from about 20 source shelters, where they are in danger of being euthanized because of lack of space, to some 62 receiving animal rescue organizations where these animals are more likely to be adopted.”
Dr. Peter Rork, co-founder of Dog Is My CoPilot
Dr. Peter Rork—a retired orthopedic surgeon and pilot who co-founded Dog Is My CoPilot, an organization that flys shelter animals to different parts of the country, boosting their prospects of being adopted—recalls his lifelong love of flying, taking his first lessons at age 12.
Pets lost in Hurricane Harvey fly out of state for new lease on life
Stranded after Hurricane Harvey, pets flown out of state for adoption.
October 16, 2017- New Mexico shelter pets get second chance
October 16, 2017- Local non-profits fly abandoned pets
October 12, 2017- A new leash on life for hurricane-hit pets
October 7, 2017- Dogs and cats from Texas arrive in Boise
October 6, 2017- Pets lost in Hurricane Harvey fly out of sate for new lease on life
October 6, 2017- Over 50 Hurricane Harvey animals find new homes in the northwest
October 2, 2017- Animals, Rescued From Hurricane Harvey
August 30, 2017- DIMC Story of flying Korean Meat Dogs to Idaho
August 26, 2017- 406 Bark- DIMC Magazine Article page 6
August 25, 2017 – Plane full of dogs rescued from kill shelters arrives in Billings
August 25, 2017- Homeless dogs get a second chance at finding a forever home
August 3, 2017- Rescued dogs, cats down to Colorado to find forever homes
August 3, 2017- Animal Rescue Organization Gives Dogs A Second Chance At Life
August 3, 2017- Rescue Dogs From South Plains Take “Flight for Life”
August 3, 2017- Dogs rescued from crowded NM shelters travel to forever home in Colo.
August 3, 2017- Dozens of dogs rescued by plane from high-kill shelters
August 3, 2017- Adoptable pets take flight to find home
June 21, 2017- Korean Dogs Avoid Ending Up On The Menu
June 14, 2017 – Dog Is My CoPilot helps 54 Texas canines get to new Idaho homes
June 13, 2017 – San Antonio volunteers send 54 dogs to homes in Idaho
June 13, 2017- Over 50 dogs from a San Antonio kill shelter land in Boise to find a forever home
June 13, 2017- SAPA! Dogs Take Flight to ‘Forever’ Homes
June 5, 2017- “I like dogs better than most people I know”
June 2, 2017- Dogs rescued from S. Korean meat farm arrive in Boise
June 2, 2017 – More dogs pulled from the depths of the South Korean dog meat trade
June 2, 2017 – Twelve dogs rescued from South Korean backyard dog meat facility
May 15, 2017- PUP, PUP, PUP….AND AWAY!
May 12, 2017- Dogs Take To Air to Find New Homes
May 12, 2017- Pets Alive, Dog is My CoPilot and Atlantic Aviation Transport dogs from San Antonio to Idaho
May 12, 2017- Dozens of dogs taken to Idaho for better chance to find forever homes
April 19, 2017 – These animals flew out of Long Beach Airport for a chance at life, thanks to nonprofit
October 13, 2016 – Flying puppies make the life-saving trek to the heartland
October 13, 2016- Dog Is My CoPilot transports animals after natural disaster
October 7, 2016- Bakersfield shelter dogs flying to Idaho to find new homes
September 15, 2016- Shelter to house canine flood victims
September 10, 2016- Dogs Stranded after Louisiana Flood of 2016 flown west
September 9, 2016- Dog is My CoPilot flies dogs from Louisiana shelter to Hailey
September 9, 2016- Dogs in diaster zones have safely arrived in Idaho
September 8, 2016- Pilot flying dozens of shelter dogs out of disaster zone
May 6, 2016 – Plane brings pups a brighter future
May 6, 2016 – Giant plane rescue saves dogs from high-kill shelters
May 5, 2016 – Unwanted pets find new homes in ‘dog-friendly’ Utah
May 4, 2016 – Nearly 100 rescue dogs flown to Colorado to find new homes
May 4, 2016 – 95 Rescued Animals Arrive In State’s Largest Airlift
April 12, 2016 – Pups on a plane: Man flies to save 49 furry friends
March 18, 2016 – Colorado rescue groups airlift Roswell, New Mexico dogs
October 20, 2015 – Denver Dog Resuer Taking Animals From SE NM
August 21, 2015 – 28 Chihuahuas from Arizona adopted in 90 minutes at Idaho adoption event
March 19, 2015 – New Mexico rescue dogs travel to forever homes in Utah and Colorado
March 18, 2015 – Group tries to save NM pups
March 16, 2015 – Exchange Dogs Fly Into Oakland
December 25, 2012 – UPDATE 2012: 161 ‘littles’ from California find homes in Montana
August 16, 2012 – Groups work together to find dog a new home
April 15, 2012 – Bingham County dogs head to new homes in Montana
