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Pilots N Paws

Dogs in Florence take flight to a better home

By: GAVIN JACKSON | SCNow 
Published: August 23, 2012

FLORENCE, S.C. –An animal rescue flight on Thursday brought a chapter of a recent animal mistreatment case in the Pee Dee to a close. One of the last dogs rescued from the possession of Veronica Crawford—who was found guilty for ill treatment of animals in August from incident where Darlington County Animal Control found a dog she owned tied up in a sack—is off to find a permanent home.

GAVIN JACKSON/MORNING NEWS Pilot Scott Messinger helps put a dog into his plane before a Pilots N Paws transport flight Thursday at the Florence Regional Airport.

Pipi was one of four puppies rescued along with mother Belinda, who was tied up, in June. Pipi was one of 18 dogs that boarded Scott Messinger’s single engine Piper bound for Home at Last Dog Rescue in North Wales, Pa., and other rescue shelters in the Northeast.

GAVIN JACKSON/MORNING NEWS Katie Edwards holds up a puppy named Pipi before a Pilots N Paws transport flight Thursday at the Florence Regional Airport. Pipi’s mother, Belinda, was found in June tied up in a sack by Darlington County Animal Control. The dog’s owner, Veronica Crawford, was recently found guilty for ill treatment of animals. Pipi is the last of Belinda’s four puppies to find a home. Belinda has also been adopted.

“I told her she was going first class,” Pipi’s foster owner Katie Edwards said as she saw Pipi off Thursday at Florence Regional Airport. “She just hadn’t been loved and now she got a lot of love; she’s been spoiled.”

The youngest passengers were a liter of seven, 1-week-old puppies with their mother.

GAVIN JACKSON:MORNING NEWS A 1-week-old puppy, his siblings and mother were some of the 18 dogs on the Pilots N Paws transport flight Thursday at the Florence Regional Airport.

For Darlington Humane Society and Rescue shelter volunteer Kathy McGowan, it was a joyous day—the second of its kind this week—and one that she wished didn’t have to exist.

“We get about 100 dogs a week coming in and about 10 get adopted,” McGowan said. “That’s about 4,500 a year with just 600 adoptions.”

McGowan says that spay and neutering efforts need to increase to keep the animal populations in check, but many don’t do it due to the fee associated with it, but she says if more people did it, less animals would have to be transported or put to sleep.

McGowan is holding a community meeting at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Nurses on Call at 2065 East Bobo Newsom Highway in Hartsville for people to get involved with volunteer opportunities and help address the animal population issues facing the county.

“We need the community to help stop this problem,” McGowan said. “We can keep shipping them out, but this is not the solution.”

GAVIN JACKSON/MORNING NEWS Pilot Scott Messinger walks a dog named Lemon up to his plane before a Pilots N Paws transport flight Thursday at the Florence Regional Airport. This is the second flight this week by Messinger, who regularly flies into Florence to transport dogs from the Darlington Humane Society and Rescue shelter to shelters up north. The Pilots N Paws network made up of 3,000 pilots nationwide that devote their time, energy and money to giving the animals a better life at rescue shelters.

3 thoughts on “Dogs in Florence take flight to a better home”

  1. Dorris Greenough says:

    God bless you for what you do.Ground transportation is sometimes so difficult and the fact you people volunteer with these animals helps restore faith in mankind.

  2. Rae Rufus says:

    GOD BLESS you and the dogs. Pipi is super cute as all of them are. I pray they will live out the rest of their lives in loving and kind homes.

  3. Jim Carney says:

    Scott,
    Another great rescue flight.
    Way to go!!
    Jim

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