El Paso Pets take Freedom Flight thanks to Dog Is My Copilot

El Paso Animal Services teams up with Dog Is My Copilot and Uncaged Paws for first partnered freedom flight

On Wednesday, October 17, over 50 shelter pets took flight to new beginnings in Idaho. States up north like Idaho are surprisingly in desperate need of adorable, adoptable pets—they just don’t have enough of them—whereas shelters in the south like us have an abundance of lovable pets in need of homes. 

This was the first time El Paso Animal Services has partnered with the non-profit organization, Dog Is My Copilot to transport animals. Though shelters up north are in need of shelter pets and shelters in the south have an abundance of them, the true challenge is finding the transportation for them. It’s difficult to drive pets to northern states, as usually that’s a 15-24 hour drive, especially when you’re usually transporting dozens of pets. This is when rescue transport organizations like Dog Is My Copilot become for feasible, as they are able to fly, rather than drive, 30-100 pets at a time  to a new location in only a few hours. 

Our dedicated lifesaving team arrived at the shelter at 2:30 in the morning to ensure that pups were walked before they were loaded safely in transport crates and loaded into the Cessna Caravan 208B.

This transport came at a crucial time for us as we are experiencing a longer-than-usual peak season. Our peak season where the majority of pets come through our doors usually only lasts from April through August. However, this year, our peak season began in February and March, and has continued through October. With OVER 2,000 pets coming through our doors every single month, partnerships with rescue organizations near and far are critical to lifesaving.

Dog Is My Copilot is a non-profit organization that operates solely on donations, and does not charge shelters for their services. If you’re interested in keeping them in the sky, donate to their lifesaving efforts on their website at www.dogcopilot.org/donate. You can also follow their lifesaving journey on Facebook! This rescue transport was also made possible thanks to the logistics partner, Uncaged Paws. 

More About Dog Is My Copilot
DIMC is a 501(c)3 organization that provides long-distance air transportation where ground transportation makes no sense; from the organizations with high euthanasia rates to those that will never put a healthy animal down. Thousands of animals have been saved from being euthanized due to overcrowding and then are given a better chance of being adopted. DIMC works with municipal animal shelters and nonprofit animal rescue organizations to coordinate flights and save animal lives. There is no charge to the animal welfare organizations for whom DIMC flies. DIMC has flown over 8,000 pets to new lives.

More About Uncaged Paws
Uncaged Paws, Inc. a 501(c)3 organization is animal welfare advocate. Their work includes rescue from high kill shelters, Tails from the Shelter and Logistics Transport Management, Tails to Freedom both which save the lives of shelter pets.  Transport saves lives but Spay-Neuter-Microchip is the long term solution.  Uncaged Paws developed FixNChip.org as a Spay-Neuter program for communities to humanely address their pet population.