Michael SchneiderFounder, Executive Director & Chief Pilot aka "Top Dog", Pilots To The Rescue · Top Dog @ Pilots To The Rescue

Saving Shelter Animals — One Flight at a Time ✈️🐾 #pilotstotherescue #animalrescue

13 Oct 2025 · 1 min

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In this brief dialogue, Michael Schneider and a co‑speaker explain why aircraft are employed to move shelter animals that face euthanasia. They argue that air transport reduces animal stress because flights are faster and the altitude environment calms the animals, allowing them to rest. Additionally, aircraft enable municipal shelters—often chronically overcrowded, under‑funded, and lacking volunteer drivers—to relocate animals quickly, completing trips that would take 24‑hour round‑trips by road in a single day. This makes aviation a valuable resource for alleviating shelter crowding and improving animal welfare.

So why do we use aircraft to transport animals at risk of being euthanized? Number one reason is there's less stress, so we can get to point A to point B a lot faster.
It's quicker for the dogs. This is a big commute for them to take in when they're not comfortable, and so it's a lot quicker. And when they get up to altitude, they're actually very calm. They can sleep.
It also enables these municipally run shelters that are overcrowded, chronically overcrowded, to get the animals out faster. So it's not easy to find volunteer drivers to drive sometimes 24 hours round trip. In an aircraft, we can do that trip in one day. So it's an amazing resource for these overcrowded municipally run shelters. They have lack of funds and lack of space.