Happy Birthday Pilot Peter!

Twelve years ago, Dr. Rork, aka, “Peter the Pilot,” founded Dog Is My CoPilot with a vision to help pets in overcrowded shelters find loving forever homes. What began as a small side hobby flying a few dogs at a time, has turned into a thriving community of animal lovers that has impacted the lives of tens of thousands of pets and families across the US.

Help us celebrate our Chief Pilot and Founder’s Birthday! Your donation to Dog Is My CoPilot goes straight to work helping thousands of animals. Abba and her dad have generously stepped forward to match every gift dollar-for-dollar up to an incredible $32,000! Please join us and make a lifesaving gift to help us stay “wheels up”.

Let’s Celebrate Peter’s Birthday together!

On Peter’s 71st Birthday this month, please join in wishing him a “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”. We have a special supporter, who in honor of Peter’s vision and birthday celebration, will be matching all gifts up to $32,000 to celebrate the 32,000 lives saved over the last 12 years!

“As I begin another trip around the sun, I want to thank everyone who supports our life saving rescue flights… you are all HEROES, especially to the 32,000 shelter pets that are now living their best lives just like Remi!”

The need for our rescue flights is only increasing.

Over the last twelve years, with the support of donors like you, we’ve saved over 32,000 animals on our rescue flights. Our work brings immediate relief to animal shelters across the country, but unfortunately conditions in many animal shelters continue to deteriorate as they’re faced with caring for an unprecedented number of abandoned pets.

Our mission in flight.

Follow along our lifesaving journey transporting pets from overcrowded animal shelters to adoption centers nationwide.

A few pups who found their forever home.

Every dog that finds a loving home inspires us to help even more animals that are waiting in shelters. We love nothing more than to share these heart-warming updates about our furry co-pilots with our community of animal lovers!

Remi

Remi, from Texas flew on a Dog Is My CoPilot rescue flight to New York City. After landing, he was quickly adopted by a family that recently sent us the sweetest update.

“We have had so much fun with Remi over the past few months! Remi and my 16-month old son became instant best friends. Remi earns his keep by serving as the clean-up crew for any food thrown from the high chair (he especially loves blueberries). He’s adjusted to city life incredibly well, playing with all his dog buddies during off-leash hours at the park, attempting to herd pigeons on the street, and figuring out which hotdog stands are the most generous with dog treats. We love Remi so much, and are so grateful to our friends at Dog Is My CoPilot for flying him to us.” It sounds like Remi is certainly living his best life!

Goose

After earning his wings with Dog Is My CoPilot, our co-pilot Goose had a few surprises in store for his new family.

“Goose was thought to be a golden retriever/ collie mix but was found to be a 50/50 Great Pyrenees and Australian Cattle dog mix…. Can you say energy! He loves playing with other dogs, is a huge fan of walks on the beach, but is not too keen on cats….no one is perfect. Again, these dogs are just looking to be loved, and although Goose has had to move a few times because of military requirements, he’s always ready for the next adventure.”

A conversation with Peter.

Recently, Peter was reflecting on the history of Dog Is My CoPilot and how the number of animals we fly each year has nearly doubled since purchasing our second plane. With two planes flying routes across the entire country, we are able to schedule over 140 rescue flights every year. All of these flights are at no cost to our partner organizations, making our air transportation an accessible lifesaving tool for overwhelmed shelters!

“There is no reason to euthanize perfectly adoptable animals when we know there are enough adopters out there, we just need to get them there.”

The Best Friends Animal Society recently published this alarming statistic: Roughly 7 million people in America are planning to acquire a pet this year, and if just 6 percent more people chose to adopt versus purchase their pets, we would end the killing of dogs and cats in our nation’s shelters. It would take a relatively few number of people to drastically reduce the euthanasia rate, we are hopeful we can help make this change.