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Southland Shelter Dogs Getting New Lease On Life In Washington State

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) —  Shelter dogs from the Southland, only days away from being euthanized due to a lack of shelter space, just got a new shot at life.

On Saturday, CBS2's Juan Fernandez reports, volunteers helped fly the dogs to Washington state, where they will be adopted next week.

"This is Milo and Milo is going to be my co-pilot today," said pilot Yehuda Netenal, of Wings of Rescue. "He is an example of how beautiful the dogs are that are being killed here in Southern California due to lack of space."

Hundreds of dogs traveled to Washington on Saturday, ready to meet their forever familes, who cannot wait to adopt them.

"There are people waiting on the tarmac for these dogs," said Melanie Pozzezz of the Bark Avenue Foundation. "These dogs have been all over their social media and their websites. They know the dogs that are coming, and the volunteers and potential adopters are standing on the tarmac waiting for them to get off the airplane."

Saturday's transport was a collaboration of the Bark Avenue Foundation, Shelter Me and Wings of Rescue.

The problem is, despite how pet-friendly the Southland can be, there are just too many dogs in shelters. So instead of being euthanized, volunteers packed them up and ship them out to cities where dogs just like themare wanted.

"There are so many animals at our shelters and they are at risk of euthanasia if we don't get involved,"said Steven Latham of Shelter Me."The No.1 thing we can do is actually go to our shelters, adopt, foster, get involved with the shelters. But you have to understand there are so many animals there it's a space issue."

The dogs being flown out Saturday will all be part of a high, Black Dog Friday adoption.

"They all get adopted, and it helps drive even more traffic to their local shelters and their dogs that they already have in them," said Pozzezz.

"They're asleep during the flight," said Netenal. "As we approach for landing, they all wake up and they tell me they're so excited."

This was just the first of several flights this holiday season. The next 500 dogs head to New York City on Dec. 5.

"Every one of our flights, and we do hundreds of flights a year, is a life-saving flight," said Netenal.

For more information on the program, or to help support the three organizations that put it together, visit FlyMeHome.org.

 

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