GEORGETOWN, Del. - NBC and Telemundo are helping clear hundreds of animal shelters across the country. Wings of Rescue is constantly clearing pets out of shelters in need and flying hundreds of pets to areas where they are in higher demand.
Sponsored by the ASPCA, Wings of Rescue flights began carrying pets up and away from natural disasters and overcrowded kill shelters in 2012.
"This year we've already been in 6 countries and 38 states," says President and CEO Rick Browde.
In the last four years, about 100 of those flights have landed in Delaware, where the nonprofit partners with the Brandywine Valley SPCA.
"They are what make the fur fly," Browde says.
BVSPCA and Wings of Rescue have saved just under 6500 animals so far together.
"When these pets come in, they're almost like Kardashians," Browde says. "They're so popular."
That's why BVSPCA has a team stationed at the Tangipahoa Animal Shelter in Louisiana. Wings of Rescue flights bring pets at risk of euthanasia to Delaware every other week, where so many potential adopters constantly await their arrival. The year long partnership BVSPCA is doing with Tangipahoa seeks to help them achieve a 90% save rate, but there's still more work to be done.
"We're also working with them to help with programs down there like trap, neuter and release, so really treating the root of the cause, helping them with issues like the stray cat populations and education and sharing with the communities down there how important it is to spay and neuter the animals," says BVSPCA Communications Manager Arynn Brucie.
Wings of Rescue doesn't only clear pets from overcrowded shelters. It takes some pets from out of harms way of natural disasters like hurricanes. Dozens of pets were saved from the Texas freeze in February and brought to BVSPCA to warm up and get ready for adoption.
"You feel very gratified for the pets that you took that were facing very bleak futures and then you have moments of sadness for all of the ones you left behind that still need saving and may not make it out," Browde says.
Click here to donate to Wings of Rescue.
Click here to donate to BVSPCA.
Click here to donate to the ASPCA.