More than 100 at-risk dogs and cats were airlifted from Louisiana to New Jersey on Tuesday morning as part of a life-saving mission for shelter pets.
The "Good Flights" airlift, which was conducted by Greater Good Charities in partnership with Clear The Shelters, Hill's Pet Nutrition and The Animal Rescue Site, involved dogs and cats from overcrowded shelters in Alabama and Louisiana. Some of the rescued pets are considered to be harder-to-place or vulnerable, such as large dogs, homeless cats and asymptomatic heartworm-positive dogs.
The 100-plus pets traveled on a flight from New Orleans to Morristown in northern New Jersey, where representatives from new shelters were there to take them in.
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The receiving shelters -- based across New Jersey, New York, Delaware, New Hampshire and Rhode Island -- will provide the pets with any needed medical care before placing them for adoption.
"Good Flights is so important because they're able to provide transportation for pets in need from areas of the country [where shelters] are at crisis-level capacity and bring them to areas where the pets have a better chance of getting adopted," said Yvonne Hsu, president of Hill's Pet Nutrition U.S. "And that's really critical, because we want to make sure we find a forever home for every pet."
Clear The Shelters
Finding forever homes across the country
This was the fifth airlift from Clear The Shelters, NBCUniversal Local's pet adoption and donation initiative. More than 600 dogs and cats have been transported since the first airlift in 2021.
The latest iteration came days after Clear The Shelters kicked off its 10th annual adoption campaign.
"This flight and this campaign we hope will bring more eyes on these pets and these people that care for them," said Erin Robbins, VP of Pet Programs for Greater Good Charities.
"If we can get the word out to more people: Go to your shelters...Whatever you can open your home and your heart to is there waiting for you and all they want is love."
Hill's Pet Nutrition and The Animal Rescue Site funded the airlift and each presented Greater Good Charities with a donation to the Clear The Shelters Fund. Greater Good Charities is the fundraising partner of Clear The Shelters.
Hill's Pet Nutrition, the national sponsor and partner of Clear The Shelters, made a $50,000 donation, while The Animal Rescue Site donated $25,000. Hill's Pet Nutrition is also donating 5,000 pounds of food to the shelters in Alabama and Louisiana where the pets were sent from.
For more information on Clear The Shelters, visit ClearTheShelters.com and the Spanish-language site DesocuparlosAlbergues.com.
Follow Clear The Shelters on social media:
- X: @ClearTheShelter
- Instagram: cleartheshelters
- TikTok: @cleartheshelters
- Hashtags: #ClearTheShelters & #DesocuparLosAlbergues
