Fifteen rescue dogs from a shelter in South Carolina got a private flight to University Park Airport on Tuesday as they headed to Centre County PAWS and then on to their forever homes.
The flight was made possible thanks to the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit No Dog Left Behind, which works with nonprofit shelters to provide air and ground transport for animals. It was the organization’s first air transport with PAWS.
“Every dog deserves a loving home, and we’re dedicated to giving them one thanks to our amazing partners and the donors who make our missions possible,” NDLB co-founder Jonathan Plesset said.
To date, NDLB has provided air and ground transport for more than 12,000 at risk animals.
Since 2014, PAWS has partnered with Freedom Fences, a shelter in Anderson, South Carolina, that works with rescue agencies in the north where demand for dog adoptions is generally higher.
Over that time, PAWS and Freedom Fences volunteers would each drive to Virginia about once a month for dogs to be transported to State College.
“We were having trouble with continuing to utilize volunteers for ground transport,” PAWS executive director Lisa Bahr said. “It was just becoming really challenging for us logistically to get the dogs here. So I just reached out to No Dog Left Behind, since they’re based out of Pittsburgh, and they were very happy to help us and get involved.”
NDLB provides the service for free.
Future flights will depend on NDLB’s availability, but Bahr is hopeful that the partnership will continue.
“We’re hoping that it will continue because the whole process just made things so much simpler for us and much less stressful for our dogs,” she said.
The flight included 13 puppies, which are already assigned to approved adopters on a waitlist, and two adult dogs that will be available for adoption.
An already fairly high demand for puppy adoptions in the area increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bahr said.
“It’s always been pretty high but I will say over the past year demand for adoptions especially with puppies has just gone through the roof,” Bahr said. “It’s been incredible… All of these puppies are spoken for and that’s because we have this lengthy waitlist of people who have gotten approved to adopt a puppy when they arrive, and so we just work our way through that list as the puppies are able to come up.”
Anyone interested in applying to adopt and being added to the waitlist can visit centrecountypaws.org/dogs/how-to-adopt.
Of course, PAWS also provides shelter for cats and kittens until they are adopted.
“Cat and kitten demand has been pretty strong until very recently. I’d say within the last month we’ve seen a dip in the interest in adoption for cats and kittens,” Bahr said. “We’re hoping that with the influx of kittens that also people’s interest will be peaked again as well.”
For information on adopting cats and kittens, visit centrecountypaws.org/cats/how-to-adopt.
