Pilots N Paws: Dogs arrive in Naples, Florida, in one of largest animal rescues in U.S. history

Pilots N Paws

A total 130 dogs rescued from throughout South Carolina landed in Naples and other cities earlier today in one of the largest animal rescues in U.S. history.

NAPLES — Dogs rescued from throughout South Carolina landed in Naples and other cities Saturday in one of the largest animal rescues in U.S. history.

A total 130 dogs at 6:30 a.m. Saturday were delivered by their rescuers to 35 pilots and their planes waiting on the tarmac of the Florence (S.C.) Regional Airport. Shortly thereafter, they were in the air, heading to no-kill shelters in Naples and around the U.S., Pilots N Paws said in a news release.

Officials at the Humane Society Naples, 370 Airport-Pulling Road N., on Saturday declined media inquiries regarding the dogs.

The mass rescue was organized by the national charity, Pilots N Paws, and was one of the largest ever. The Memorial Rescue Flight, the third such flight, was dedicated to the “Chesterfield 22” — 22 dogs needlessly shot to death in Chesterfield, S.C., in March.

In March, 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 two of the dogs, each shot in the head, from a shallow landfill across the street from the shelter. Chesterfield County 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 who died, this year’s Memorial Rescue Flights brought together 50 pilots and their planes to save at least 130 dogs from several South Carolina counties, including Chesterfield. Other volunteer pilots across the country joined in the event by making a memorial rescue flight in their region of the country.

The rescue flights started at 8 a.m. today at Florence Regional Airport. Shelters from Chesterfield, Greenville, Spartanburg, Marlboro, Marion, Darlington, and Florence, S.C., delivered dogs to the airport for flights to their new homes.

In addition to Naples, Pilots and Dogs landed at airports in Warrenton, Va.; West Point, Va.; Caldwell, N.J.; Cochran, Ga.; Tampa; Lakeland; and West Palm Beach.

Since Pilots N Paws began in 2008, pilots have donated their time, planes and fuel to fly thousands of dogs from shelters where they faced certain death due to overcrowded shelters and pet overpopulation due to lack of pet sterilization.

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