99 pets relocated in 100th partnership flight to Georgetown

BVSPCA, Wings of Rescue mark milestone

By Glenn Rolfe
Posted 10/5/21

GEORGETOWN — As the 2021 Wings & Wheels festival played out Saturday at the Delaware Coastal Airport, the Brandywine Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals marked an achievement nearby with Wings of Rescue.

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99 pets relocated in 100th partnership flight to Georgetown

BVSPCA, Wings of Rescue mark milestone

Posted

GEORGETOWN — As the 2021 Wings & Wheels festival played out Saturday at the Delaware Coastal Airport, the Brandywine Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals marked an achievement nearby with Wings of Rescue.

The BVSPCA and Wings of Rescue partnership, which relocates at-risk animals in hopes of finding their forever homes, landed 99 pets at the Georgetown airport.

Seventy-one dogs and 28 cats from Louisiana were passengers on the 100th flight in the groups’ four-year alliance, according to BVSPCA’s marketing director Linda Torelli.

Once checked out and cleared, the animals were placed at four adoption centers — in Dover, Georgetown, New Castle and West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Together, the union has saved more than 7,000 animal lives.

It began when Ms. Torelli approached Wings of Rescue about a possible partnership. A 501(c)3 charity founded in 2012, Wings of Rescue flies at-risk shelter pets from disaster areas and overcrowded shelters to safe havens.

“As our footprint of shelters grew and adoption rates also grew, we had capacity to save more animals, so I reached out to Wings to help us save dogs that are highly adoptable here but at risk in Southern shelters,” Ms. Torelli said. “Our partnership quickly expanded to collaborating on helping communities impacted by natural disasters, as well.”

Most of the animals from the Saturday flight, and those previously, have come from BVSPCA’s partner shelter of the Tangipahoa Parish Animal Control Department in Hammond, Louisiana.

“That’s a strategic, yearlong mentoring project where we have staff living in Louisiana and working at that shelter for the year,” Ms. Torelli said. “Our goal is to help them go from 20% lives saved to 90% by the end of the year.”

As of early October, the effort was above 80%, with the goal expected to be reached.

“Other shelters participating in the flight are established partnerships in that area, where we are helping them relocate pets at risk there due to shelter overcrowding that are highly adoptable here,” Ms. Torelli said.

Most of the pets saved have gone to BVSPCA locations. However, the society also connected some with partner shelters in the region, as well as in New England and the Midwest.

“Animals in need know no borders,” said BVSPCA CEO Adam Lamb. “Our collaboration with Wings of Rescue has been so successful based on the core values we share to help animals, organizations and communities in need agilely and without judgment.”

Wings of Rescue’s CEO Ric Browde agreed.

“All of us at Wings of Rescue take great joy in celebrating this milestone flight to the amazing people at Brandywine Valley SPCA,” he said. “During the past four years, we have compassionately flown over 6,750 at-risk pets to this phenomenal adoption center and its partner shelters. We are grateful for every staff member and volunteer who worked tirelessly to save the lives of these pets and for the thousands of individuals and families who adopted our precious cargo.”

According to WOR’s website, in 2020, it flew 9,245 pets (6,950 dogs, 2,233 cats, 23 rabbits, 38 guinea pigs and one three-legged mouse) a total distance of 262,064 miles to safety. WOR also delivered more than 40,000 pounds of emergency supplies to natural disaster victims — both two- and four-legged.

Saturday’s flight also featured a film crew from the docuseries, “To the Rescue,” hosted by Tommy Habeeb.

“It’s a very exciting opportunity for us!” Ms. Torelli said. “There will be an episode spotlighting our work here and our yearlong project with Tangipahoa Parish animal services in Louisiana. The show folks started in Hammond, Louisiana, on Friday, as the team got ready for the flight, and followed the entire process, including flying on the plane, unloading dogs in Georgetown and West Chester and coming to our West Chester campus to see the dogs unloaded after that final flight stop.”

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