Pilots N Paws Seeks Connections To Help Fly (5,000) Dogs Home

One week to fly 5,000 dogs from high-kill shelters to new homes is one worthy goal.

During the week of Sept. 12-20, 2009, Pilots N Paws, which is an online forum for animal rescue groups and pilots to coordinate animal transports around the country, has set that goal.

"The goal of The Pilots N Paws 5000 is to increase awareness among pilots and aircraft owners across the country of the dire need for animal transports," says Jon Wehrenberg, co-founder of Pilots N Paws. "Pilot's involvement can help to save thousands of animals from euthanasia. We are committed to increasing the number of pilots and plane owners involved in Pilots N Paws so that no request for transport goes unanswered."

If a shelter or rescue is from an area that has high rates of euthanasia, Pilots N Paws (PNP) would like that shelter or rescue to pencil in the week of Sept. 12-20, and commit to making an animal or multiple animals available to an animal shelter or rescue in an area where these animals can be placed in forever homes.

Rescues and fosters will need to locate their counterparts in areas of the country where high kill rates are not the rule, and have them find fosters and make space available for the animals that will be rescued.

Ideally the distance between the sending and receiving parties should be approximately 300 miles, which is an average distance for general aviation pilots.

The sending and receiving pair will then team up with a pilot volunteer who will provide the transportation during this special rescue week. The process is made easy through the use of the PNP site which is designed to bring the parties together and facilitate the making of all necessary transport arrangements.

Pilots, plane owners, animal rescues and shelters are currently being sought out to be a part of this important countrywide humanitarian event in September.

Pilots N Paws is a 501c3 organization so pilots expenses relating to transports is tax deductible.

For more information on PNP, visit www.pilotsnpaws.org.

Guidelines about the The Pilots N Paws 5000 are listed on the PNPWeb site. Contact Debi Boies at pilotsnpaws@gmail.com.



Photos depict a successful Pilots N Paws rescue.

Pilots N Paws, Fly Dogs Home

Pilots love to fly. Rescue groups devote their lives to save animals. What do they have in common? Until recently, only the bone-deep passion and commitment to what they love.

That is, until the brainstorm of Debi Boies of South Carolina and Jon Wehrenberg of Knoxville, Tenn., co-founders of Pilots N Paws.

The two found common ground when Boies, a retired nurse who also rescues Dobermans, was looking for someone to get a dog from Florida. Time was running out. The Dobie needed to be on a ride headed north to Boies in South Carolina. (A grim fact of life: some 9 million animals are euthanized every year in the United States, according to the American Humane Society.)

Wehrenberg, a retired manufacturing executive and pilot, saw a better solution - why drive?

Pilots love to fly, he said, and they want the time in the air for training hours.

How about flying that pup home?

And, after he learned just how many animal rescue groups work with dedication to link up much-needed transports, why don't we get the word out so other pilots can help too?

Two worlds clicked together. A world of helping hands started turning.

Pilots N Paws (PNP) was born. The an online (non-profit) network forum connects animals in need with a community of pilot first rescue flight too off Feb. 8, 2008.

"With the airing of the NBC Nightly News segment and the Today Show, so many new pilots have joined I can't keep up," she said. "Now the local FBOs are spreading the word - even more pilots are signing up."

PNP acts as a hub - the wheel is where people and pilots plug in to arrange or schedule rescue flights, overnight foster care/ shelter, or ground transporation and related activities.



"It's unbelievably rewarding," said Jerry Sica of New Jersey, a floor trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and pilot since age 17 (he's now 34). Sica learned about the PNP network through his Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) membership, tapped in to learn where he could help.

"Pilots look for reasons to fly and this combines two things we love - flying and helping out." (Ever hear of the $100 hamburger? This beats that burger eaten at another airport, hands down.)

Two maps, one for pilots and the other for animals that need rescue, make finding connections a visual snap on the PNP site.

"Most pilots fly 200 to 300 miles each way, that's about 2 hours each way," said Sica, who flies from KCDW, Essex County Airport Caldwell, New Jersey, and now serves on the PNP board of directors.

More pilots logging on to the network means more choices for long-distance flights, where each can take a leg of the journey.

"Flights are subject to weather," points out Sica. "There are times we need people on the ground because of weather and icing conditions. There is a need for people along the way, if we spend the night, somewhere to hold the dogs."

That's how it works.

"Pilots and animal lovers, the best of both worlds."

Photos: Debi Boies and Jon Wehrenberg, co-founders of Pilots N Paws, top. Next photo: Pilot John Lee (pilot, Ohio), Jerry Sica Sr. with Baxter, Jerry Sica Jr., and co-pilot Ron Ferrell, with Piper. Close-up, Jerry Sica, Sr. (also a pilot) with "Piper" a rescue found tied to a park bench on a subzero night; Piper now lives with a loving family.

Talk About Flying, Wings Across America

"You don't need legislation to prove something . . . you can be whatever you set your heart and head to be, and don't let anybody tell you can't be, because 1,078 women pilots did it in World War II."

- Pilot Annelle Henderson Bulechek, WASP 44-W-2

They were the original "Fly Girls."

During World War II, a select group of young women pilots trained to fly American military aircraft. Known as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS), their life experiences are being collected in interviews for Wings Across America, a multi-media virtual museum.

A new exhibit honoring the military's first female aviators debuted Nov. 2008 at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington Cemetery. To view online and listen to the pilots, see this link featuring Department of Defense (DoD) videos.

Nancy Parrish is director of Wings Across America and creator of the Fly Girls exhibit.

To see an interview with Gloria Heath of Connecticut, who is recognized as a "leader in establishing an international safety information and providing a unified global response to distress occurrence for the land, sea and air" - visit http://www.wingsacrossamerica.us/wings/interviews.htm.

Heath served as a WASP and has been involved in aviation ever since in a variety of roles including the director of summer aviation programs at Connecticut College as well as a consultant for the search and rescue operation, SAR-ASSIST. She is a founding Board member of the Flight Safety Foundation and remains actively involved today.

Another venue, "A Passionate Pursuit," part of a Living History Symposium Series is set for Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28 (in Florida) features the opportunity to meet and talk with WASP pilots.

Fantasy of Flight's WASP exhibition, which includes aircraft as well as four separate bays that feature historical, anecdotal, and inspirational newsreel footage, original photos, and storytelling panels from the 1940s and today, will serve as the backdrop for historic appearances from WASP pilots, Betty Blake, Helen Wyatt Snapp and Bernice "Bee" Falk Haydu. Cost of the symposium is $28.95.

Women in Aviation, International (WAI) is a non-profit organization based near Dayton, Ohio. WAI is dedicated to the encouragement and advancement of women in all aviation career fields and interests. For more information call (937) 839-4647; wai@infinet.com; www.wiai.org.