TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – The Animal Services Center in Tallahassee recently issued a notice that the shelter is full and is making a desperate call for adoptions. In the hopes of saving space and saving lives, it is cramming two, sometimes three dogs into one kennel.
It’s a tough battle. The number of dogs and cats arriving at the shelter far exceeds the number adopted.
The shelter’s statistics show that it has taken in more than 2,700 dogs and cats so far this year. More than 700 were surrendered by their owners and more than 1,700 are strays picked up on the streets. That’s an average of more than 10 per day. Less than 50% are adopted and just under 20% are euthanized.
It can be discouraging.
What the numbers don’t show is the dedication and effort that shelter workers, rescue groups and animal lovers put into trying to save as many of these animals as possible.
For hundreds of dogs and cats, this means getting into a van or a plane and traveling hundreds of miles for a fresh start.
In this report, “Dog Days of Summer,” we take a look at the ways people are doing literally everything humanly possible to help.
Randy Hock is ready to go while most of us are still sipping our first cup of coffee, preparing to greet the morning sky and break through the clouds.
It’s a sight and a feeling that never gets old. I’m going this Monday too.
“We’re picking up some cute dogs in Bainbridge. Decatur County. They need a ride,” Hock said as we sat in the cockpit waiting to take off at Tallahassee International Airport.
Hock is on a mission to save lives as part of an all-volunteer group called Pilots N Paws.
The pilots pick up dogs from overcrowded animal shelters with an uncertain future and fly them to rescue centers and foster homes that promise them a second chance.
Hock is one of 6,000 pilots across the country who answer that call. Over the past four years, he has transported more than 200 dogs.
“I see Vivi. I see Poppy. Hi girls,” Hock said when a Bainbridge animal shelter worker met him on the tarmac of Decatur County’s industrial airport. two dogs for sale.
“Somehow the dogs know. I don’t know how they know, but when you take them out of the cage and out of the car, they know it’s going to be a good day,” Hock said. “It happens almost every time. They’re ready to go. They know their lives are going to change, and their lives Are will change.”
“They will be adopted so quickly!” he said as he loaded the dogs onto the plane.
Before they know it, the puppies are buckled up and setting off on the two-hour journey to Tampa.
One is nervous and calm, the other looks excitedly out the window.
“The transfer program is an absolute lifesaver,” said Melissa Sharp, intake and transfer coordinator at Tallahassee Animal Service Center.
There, too, ten happy dogs and cats will be loaded onto a car for the chance at a new life, but it will be a car journey. And a very long one at that.
At the helm will be Kelby Shults, CEO of Blooper Animal Rescue.
“We’ll go all the way to Maine, about 1,800 miles one way, and the round trip will be about 3,500 miles, roughly,” Shults said.
Shults makes regular stops at the Tallahassee Animal Service Center. We met him earlier this year as he and shelter staff loaded five dogs and five cats into his multi-kennel truck.
For some of them, like Pixie, a blind toy poodle with a long list of health problems, there are already families waiting to adopt them.
“Some of them have been here for weeks, if not months,” Melissa Sharp said. “I’ve even sent some that have been here for years, and they were adopted within 30 days of arriving.”
Mac is a prime example. He’s a boxer mix who languished in the Tallahassee animal shelter for 491 days.
“Sometimes the best dogs stay the longest,” said his former foster mother, Nikki Rupp. “He’s one of my five favorite dogs of all time.”
But Mac was adopted just weeks after he stepped off the transport truck in Massachusetts.
“Everyone said, ‘Why did he sit here for so long?’ And we said, ‘We don’t know, but you’re the lucky one because you get to take him home,'” Rupp said. “He deserves it and has waited a long time for his chance.”
Rupp is a board member of the Tallahassee Animal Shelter Foundation, which funds these transports, which can cost $2,500 or more per trip.
“It’s so important because we’re seeing unprecedented numbers of new intakes in our state and in our city, so any dog we can release from the shelter with a virtually guaranteed chance of survival, we’re going to take that opportunity,” she said.
Ten more dogs were loaded into a truck Thursday night to be taken to shelters and rescues in New England, including Lewis, who has been waiting for adoption at the Tallahassee Animal Services Center for nearly nine months – 260 days.
Rescue Riders, the animal transport company operating this trip, says arrival is scheduled for Saturday morning.
The Tallahassee Animal Service Center has transported more than 200 animals so far this year. Some went to other states, others further south to Florida. These transports are used regularly, sometimes as often as twice a month.
“There were a few times when I was pretty sad to see them go,” Melissa Sharp said. “Of course we are very attached to the animals in our care, but to see them go and know that they will find a forever home is all we want.”
Hock is now standing on the tarmac at Tampa Executive Airport.
“Welcome to Tampa, big girl. Welcome to Tampa. A whole new life,” he said as he lifted Poppy out of her crate.
Courtney Canada-Couturier of Maxx and Me Pet Rescue is waiting for them with the promise that the puppies will stay in a foster home until they are adopted.
“It’s always so exciting. We literally wake up and say, ‘Today is a great day to save a life,’ but without people like Randy and pilots who sacrifice their time, money and effort to get these dogs here, we would have no chance of saving these special dogs,” Canada-Couturier said.
She said the dogs have a bright future.
“They are 100% adopted,” she said. “We are a foster home. We don’t have a facility, so all of our dogs go straight to a home where they get to know the dogs and find out what a perfect home looks like for them.”
“It’s always a good day when I can do something meaningful for the dogs and the people,” Hock said as he helped load the puppies into Canada-Couturier’s car. “I’m taking a bath,” he said, laughing as Vivi licked his face.
Hock said that the journey home after these trips is always special.
“It’s a great feeling. It’s a great feeling to know they’re going to have a better life,” he said.
As he once again soars above the Gulf and the clouds, he is inspired by the knowledge that he and so many others are doing everything they can to make a difference – for one animal, sometimes for two at once.
Poppy only took a few weeks. She now has a new home and a new name. Vivi has just been neutered and is now ready for her forever home.
And what about the cats and dogs in the van? The shelter told us that all of them, including the old miniature poodle and the three-legged bull terrier, have already been adopted.
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