At a Glance
- In the wake of Hurricane Maria, a nonprofit group is flying dogs and cats out of Puerto Rico.
- These dogs and cats are receiving treatment in the States before being sent out for adoption.
- The animals being flown off the island were already in shelters before the hurricane hit.
After hundreds of dogs and cats in Puerto Rico were left homeless amid the devastation of Hurricane Maria, shelters quickly became crowded and even overrun by all the animals. But in the wake of the storm, one group has arrived on the island with one mission in mind: fly as many of those shelter animals as possible to the States in hopes of finding them a new home.
The nonprofit Wings of Rescue has dispatched its volunteer pilots to disaster zones in hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria over the past month or more, according to Today.com. The company's CEO, Rick Browde, arrived in Puerto Rico last Friday with thousands of pounds of relief supplies in a cargo plane and left with dozens of dogs and cats.
"We just want to do what's best," Browde told Today.com. "Make sure that we are doing the right thing."
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Working with other animal groups on the island – like the Sato Project, which lost its headquarters to the hurricane – Wings of Rescue isn't transporting lost pets; the animals they're flying out of Puerto Rico were already in shelters before the hurricane ravaged the island.
One such town that has received the pets is Madison, New Jersey, where several planes filled with dogs and cats have arrived at Morristown Municipal Airport over the past few days, according to the Daily Record.
From there, the animals will receive treatment and immunizations, and then they'll be sent out to Humane Society of the United States locations across the country, Inga Fricke, director of pet retention programs for HSUS, told Mother Nature Network.
"We’re going to spread the word that not only are these animals coming, but there’s a need for homes to adopt them," State Sen. Raymond Lesniak told the Daily Record. "St. Hubert’s [Animal Welfare Center] and the Humane Society, they’re doing God’s work. And the people in the state of New Jersey who will take these dogs into their homes will be blessed with the goodwill they will feel by giving these dogs a second chance."
Since it was founded in 2012, Wings of Rescue has saved more than 26,000 pets by flying them to safety, its website said. The group set a goal to rescue at least 10,000 pets this year.
