5000 Animal Rescue Week DON'T POST REQUESTS HERE!

[drdpride]

I will be available to participate as a pilot and/or foster parent in San Antonio ... should be available to transport to most anywhere in Texas except the far western part of the state. In the meantime, I am going to get in contact with as many pilots as I know (even the ones not a part of PNP as of yet), all the shelters in the San Antonio area (will try to include the surrounding areas), and the media. - Denise Pride

[gregorysgiftofhope]

This is a wonderful idea. You can count Gregory's Gift of Hope of New Richmond Wi in on this. I will make sure we schedule an intake during this week, I hate to say it will not be to hard to do with so many animals in need. This is a wonderful program that is so needed for the animals. I encourage as many rescue organizations as possible to get involved.
Colleen

[Jon]

HELP. actually HELP is more like it.

We are now rapidly heading towards the selected date and now the hard part begins. There are many things that have to be done, but first and foremost now is to get specific on identifying the transport "pairs".

Everyone promising to send and receive rescue animals now has to pair up. This is vital. If you are a shelter or rescue willing to make animals available for transport, identify the receiving shelter or transport now and post that information. Here is some advice. We know you cannot specify the number or sizes of the animals to be transported now, but you can post the starting and ending cities. As soon as you do this pilots can begin volunteering for the transport. When pilots have done this the three parties involved are a team that can work on the details.

Different pilots have different size planes and personal rules or limitations. Off line the sending and receiving parties and the pilots can communicate these facts. In a perfect world the transport would be no longer than the pilot's range (relays can get very complex), the number of animals (not just pups, but cats and other animals that need saving) should be as many as the pilot can carry or the receiving rescue can take, and all three will work towards not only the transport, but involving the media. More about that later.

There are many other things involved in this and as we get our program refined we will make you all aware. We may dedicate another portion on the web site to this. We may ask for help in getting this posted in a manner in which it will be easy for sending rescues, receiving rescues and pilots can find one another. We will be asking all who participate to maximize the media coverage so we can make the public aware of the three issues we wish to communicate. We want people aware of the need for spay and neuter programs. We want people aware of how important general aviation is to our country and how much good it does (not limited to pilotsnpaws but all the humanitarian and public benefit flights), and we want to make pilots not yet involved in PNP that we need many more pilots to continue our efforts.

[ImagineSolace]

I just wanted to let you know this information is slowly filtering down in emails through to rescues. I have contacts nationally as well as in the UK and will help get the word out. It's hard to post out all of the posts you've put on here so if you could just put it all in a nutshell for us and send to me it would be most helpful. My national posters can then get it out and have it flying (excuse the pun) to over 300 groups on yahoo, myspace and facebook within hours. In turn those folks reading it will have it out. That's a lot of people.
So if you can get me someting I will get it out for you. Send it to my email imaginesolace4allanimals@gmail.com and I will take it from there.
Good luck and my paws are crossed for you all.

[MidABHR]

Mid-Atlantic Basset Hound Rescue is willing to help. We usually help out other rescues in Kentucky, Ohio, and have our own pulls and adoptions throughout NY, NJ, PA, and parts of CT and DE.

Suzanne Fitch, President
Mid-Atlantic Basset Hound Rescue
5 Mine Hill Road
Washington, NJ 07882
cell 908-256-0598
e-mail Adopt4Paws@yahoo.com
www.midatlanticbassets.com

[eprischm]

Hi, I'm with a rescue group and would love to help. I just haven't found any information about how the dogs will be handled. I don't want my fosters sitting on the hot tarmac to prove a point. Please respond with how the animals are handled throughout transport. Thanks!

[Jon]

Let me see if I can summarize this so it can be distributed nationally.

During the week of September 12 through the 20th we want those participating in pilots n paws to be a part of transports all around the country and we have set a lofty goal of transporting 5000 animals to safety and their forever homes. We are doing this to gain local and national media attention about three themes. The first is the most important and that is to make the public aware of the dire need for spay and neuter programs so we do not have to kill millions of animals annually. Secondly we want to make the general public aware that general aviation, its pilots and plane owners, make a huge contribution to our nation, not only in the furtherance of their businesses and personal interests, but for humanitarian purposes including the transport of rescue animals. Finally we want pilots and plane owners to be aware of the need for animal transports so we can greatly increase the ranks of those pilots and plane owners so no request for transports goes unanswered.

None of this will happen without strong support and help from shelters and rescues and fosters. If a shelter or rescue is from an area that has high rates of euthanasia we want that shelter or rescue to pencil the week listed above and commit to making an animal or multiple animals available to a shelter, rescue or foster in an area where these animals can be placed in forever homes. We know nobody can predict what animals are going to be available, or their size, or even how many during that week in September, but we do know there will be animals available. Those sending rescues and shelters need to locate their counterparts in areas of the country where high kill rates are not the rule, and get them to agree to make space available for the animals that will be rescued. Ideally the distance between the sending and receiving parties should be 300 miles (more or less, we pilots have some flexibility) so we can avoid having transport relays which are difficult to coordinate.

The sending and receiving pair will then have a pilot or pilots volunteer to do that transport during the rescue week. Each team of pilot, sending and receiving rescues or shelters will handle their own transport details regarding timing, and especially media coverage. We want to involve as much local and national media attention as possible to make the public aware of the needs.

There are many more details to be worked out and time is rapidly winding down so it is critical that we get sending and receiving pairs so we can get pilots on board to volunteer to do their part.

[admin]

Hi, I'm with a rescue group and would love to help. I just haven't found any information about how the dogs will be handled. I don't want my fosters sitting on the hot tarmac to prove a point. Please respond with how the animals are handled throughout transport. Thanks!

Hi there and thank you for your willingness to participate, we need you! I am guess but it appears to me that you have not been involved with a Pilots N Paws transport before but it also appears to me that you will be involved in the very near furture

I understand your concerns however this is not the case with the transports we have seen. Basically, the sending and receiving rescues work directly with the pilot doing the transport. The pilots sets us the day, time and place and both the sending and receiving rescues meet the pilot at those places and appointed times. Pilots are used to schedules and barring any unforeseen weather or mechanical issues they are prompt! Having said that, everyone needs to realize that things do happen and sometimes transports will need to be postponed. This is why COMMUNICATION is so important between all parties directly involved in the transport. Always exchange cell phone numbers and keep in contact it is critical. Most small airports have an airport lounge that welcomes fosters and animals to stay there until the pilot has arrived. Just walk in and tell them what you are there for.

I think if you take some time and view our Photo Gallery and Story albums on our homepage you will see that the animals are most comfortable. In the reverse, we also do not want pilots sitting on a tarmac waiting for a rescue who was supposed to be there. It happens, with traffic and emergencies which is why, once again cell phones are parmount. We ahve also had a couple situations where the weather turned unexpectedly. In those cases, if a pilot needed to land, the FBO personnel at the airport jumped in to call local fosters to overnight. WE have a foster volunteer map on our homepage that you can utilize to give a heads up to volunteer fosters along your route as well.

I would not worrry about your fosters and animals sitting on a hot tarmac. These flights will be happening all over the country and not centered in one location where you will arrive and a group of planes and animals will be htere. My guess is some airports may have more then one PNP pilot show up for a pick up /delivery, but what we are doing is individual transports, just like always but in a larger volume within a specific time frame and hopefully with media coverage you have gotten for your transport!

Hope this clarifies......Jon, thanks for the great summary!

Debi

[kingdom]

Hi,

We are a small rescue in North Florida, and we, with 2 partner small rescues, will be happy to send and/or rece ive animals during that week.

[midogrescue]

I live in Royal Oak, Michigan just outside of Detroit. I am happy to help with fostering or weekend transport. I foster for one rescue, but transport for 5 rescues around the Detroit area. Any info I can give to them will be wonderful and may help you in your endeavor.

Debra Gantz