Local puppies flown to New York
By JOHN CRANE
Three beagle-mix puppies took the trip of their lifetimes Wednesday to a dog rescue organization in New York.
Launching from Danville Regional Airport, South Carolina-based Pilots-N-Paws flew Sally, Stanley and Smiley to Helping Hounds in DeWitt, N.Y., said Mary Hicks Heitzler, president of the Animal Welfare League of Pittsylvania County.
“The Helping Hounds group will find them homes or foster homes and they will live happily ever after,”Heitzler said via email Wednesday
The league arranged the transport with Helping Hounds and Pilots-N-Paws, Heitzler said. The puppies came from the Pittsylvania County Pound in Dry Fork.
“They have been offered for adoption but they were not adopted,” Heitzler said. “The time to hold them has expired.”
Helping Hounds, a nonprofit, has saved 1,505 dogs since opening in January 2009, said Karen Kukla, the organization’s president and founder. Sally, Stanley and Smiley arrived at the facility in DeWitt at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, she said.
“They made it up safe and sound and they’re doing well,” Kukla said.
The trio, which had their required shots, will be spayed and neutered within a week and should have no trouble finding homes, Kukla said.
“They (puppies) tend to get adopted very quickly,” she said.
Pilots-N-Paws’ pilots help groups by transporting animals from one rescue agency to another, Heitzler said.
The league has worked with Pittsylvania County Animal Control and petitioned the Board of Supervisors in January 2010 to allow transfers from the pound to rescue groups.
“This partnership has made it possible to save approximately 400 dogs that would have had to be euthanized otherwise,” Heitzler said. “Our county is the largest in the state and space is limited at the pound.”
“This has made a huge improvement in the euthanization rate in the county and we will do everything we can to continue with the worthy cause,” Heitzler said.
The league has received lots of support from the Board of Supervisors and county citizens enabling the relocation of dogs to places like Helping Hounds, Heitzler said.
“The hope is that by bringing attention to the great dogs and puppies in the Pittsylvania County pound, anyone looking for a new pet to join their family will check with the county pound and give one of these wonderful dogs who are in need of a home a second chance,” Heitzler said.
