Michael Schneider, a pilot and founder of Pilots To The Rescue—which flies animals from shelters plagued by low rates of adoption (and, often, high rates of euthanasia), to rescues where foster or forever homes have been arranged—describes the career reinvention that preceded his taking flying lessons.
Schneider remembers that, back then, like most new pilots, he was perennially seeking opportunities to fly—hours in the air—and some of those opportunities involved transporting shelter animals. It might be too glib to characterize those as a collective lightbulb moment, but it’s probably not wrong to suggest this presaged the creation of Pilots To The Rescue. (PTTR)
He recalls—sliding behind the controls of PTTR’s 1976 Piper Lance—his very first experiences relocating animals, including a dog with cerebral palsy who clearly touched Schneider profoundly. Schneider discusses the phenomenon that underpins Pilots To The Rescue’s mission, confirming that it’s largely about geography, with the troubled shelters often located in the South—North Carolina is a frequent pick-up site—with the transported dogs and cats typically landing in the Northeast.
Pilots To The Rescue is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary—there are now 10 pilots–and has similarly broadened its mission over that decade, applying its aircraft and expertise to other types of undertakings, including disaster relief efforts.
Another example of a project straying somewhat from Pilots To The Rescue’s original premise is a current collaboration with Humane World for Animals (formerly the Humane Society of The United States) which rescued more than 250 animals from a fur and urine farm operation in Ohio—Schneider and his team to transport wolf-dog hybrids seized there, transporting them to Sarasota, where they’ll be cared for.
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