Pet Resq And Pet’s Best Friend NJ Join Pilots N Paws For Third Annual Awareness And Adoption Event
By Mel Fabrikant Tuesday, September 13, 2011, 05:49 PM EDT
Memorial Rescue Flight Dedicated to the “Chesterfield 22” Set for September 17, 2011
On September 17, 2011, Pet ResQ Inc. and Pet’s Best Friend NJ are joining Pilots N Paws to help relocate over 150 animals from South Carolina to permanent homes in Washington D.C., Florida, New Jersey, New York and Georgia. This Memorial Rescue Flight is dedicated to the “Chesterfield 22” — twenty-two dogs that were senselessly shot to death in Chesterfield, South Carolina in March.
Pet ResQ Inc. of Tenafly, a local nonprofit animal rescue organization, and Pet’s Best Friend NJ, a pet company providing fitness and waste removal services, are handling the relief and adoption efforts in New Jersey. About a dozen dogs will land at Farfield Airport where they will be transferred into temporary foster situations while they seek adoptive families.
Pilots N Paws is a national program that gives animals a second chance one flight at a time. This unique program brings together planes, pilots and shelters to rescue and transport dogs (and other animals) from overcrowded shelters, relocating them to organizations committed to finding them homes.
Of the thousands of rescue flights Pilots N Paws has made since its inception, the 3rd Annual Awareness Rescue Flight is an acute reminder of why Pilots N Paws exists. In March of this year, Deborah Farhi, a volunteer with the Chesterfield County Animal Shelter in South Carolina, noticed many of the dogs in the shelter were missing. Upon questioning, shelter volunteers accused four local animal control officers of shooting 22 of the dogs in their care to death instead of euthanizing them through the approved, humane methods.
Shortly thereafter, Farhi uncovered 2 of these dogs, each shot in the head, from a shallow landfill across the street from the shelter. Sheriff Sam Parker, who oversees animal control, put all four officers on leave, and within weeks the state attorney general asked the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to begin investigating the allegations. Today, the case against Chesterfield County is still under investigation.
To honor the 22 animals that lost their lives in March, this year’s Memorial Rescue Flights will bring together 50 pilots and their planes in an effort to save at least 150-200 dogs from several South Carolina counties, including Chesterfield. Other volunteer pilots across the country will join in the event by making a memorial rescue flight in their area on September 17.
The rescue flights will start on Saturday, September 17 at 6:30 a.m. at the Florence Regional Airport in South Carolina (www.florencescairport.com). In case of inclement weather, the flights will be postponed until Sunday, September 18.
“My goal is to create another no kill animal shelter in Bergen county,” said Robyn Urman, founder of Pet ResQ Inc. “With all our wealth and resources, there’s no reason we don’t have a large, fully-equipped safe place for unwanted pets to go until they are fostered. I can’t let animals die needlessly and have made it my personal mission to find pets homes and loving owners. I need the public’s help to save lives.”
