About 150 shelter pets from wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles will arrive in North Texas this weekend.
The nonprofit Wings of Rescue is flying in two planeloads of pets from L.A. to Meacham Airport in Fort Worth in partnership with the Humane Society of North Texas.
Cassie Davidson, senior director of social awareness for Wings of Rescue, said some shelters in Southern California are as much as 500% over capacity.
鈥淭o alleviate that, to ensure that no animals are euthanized, to create kennel space, we are flying out as many pets as we can as quickly as we can," she said.
The pets have been sitting in shelters in Los Angeles waiting for adoption and will be getting a second chance for a home in North Texas.
Making room in L.A.'s shelters allows them to take in animals separated from their families because of the wildfires.
"What we are doing is clearing kennel space for the evacuees and their pets to be reunited," Davidson said.
Shelters around the country 鈥渟tepped up,鈥� Davidson said, to house emergency fosters. So far, the animal rescue organization has flown animals out to Utah, Washington, Oregon, and now Texas.
All of the animals arriving this weekend will immediately be going into foster care so that they don鈥檛 displace pets at already overburdened local shelters.
She said the rescue efforts have been met with some chatter on social media by critics 鈥渨ho are not happy that pets from California are flying into an already overpopulated shelter system.鈥�
The Humane Society of North Texas will host an adoption event for the California pets from Jan. 24 鈥� 26 at the Human Society鈥檚 Forth Worth shelter location.
In upcoming weeks, Wings of Rescue will also fly pets from cities like Fort Worth and Dallas to other areas to alleviate overcrowding at the shelters and prevent euthanasia, Davidson said.
Priscilla Rice is 四虎影院鈥檚 communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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