A chartered cargo plane carrying 109 dogs and 25 cats rescued from overcrowded shelters in Louisiana arrived Wednesday afternoon in the D.C. region amid storms from the remnants of Hurricane Ida.
The pets’ journey had started a week ago before Hurricane Ida made landfall as part of a roughly $45,000 effort by the Bissell Pet Foundation, a Michigan-based nonprofit animal rescue group run by Cathy Bissell, who’s married to the owner of the well-known vacuum and cleaning products company.
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On Wednesday, in pouring rain and under severe weather warnings, the flight packed with pets in carriers — a canine-and-feline cargo weighing 3,378 pounds — landed at a small airport in Manassas, Va., where they were unloaded crate by crate in an hour-long operation and greeted by staff and volunteers from 11 D.C.-area shelters working to find people to adopt them.
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Some of the animals were very thin. Others were pregnant. And about half a dozen appeared to have eye infections.
The animals had been taken from five shelters in Louisiana that were at their capacity, and rescuers said moving these animals allowed those facilities to be able to take in more pets that may be lost or had to go there temporarily while their owners evacuated or recovered in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
One of the rescued dogs — a mixed pit-bull-Labrador that had been abused and found wandering the streets of New Orleans — was headed to a 60-plus-acre farm outside of Philadelphia.
“It was so emotional because you look in their eyes, and they’re very scared. You just keep telling them, ‘This is your lucky day,’” said Kim Williams, a spokeswoman for the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation, an organization in Falls Church, Va., that took 25 dogs and six cats that range in age from puppies to elderly pets from Bissell’s mission.
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Many areas in the South have overcrowded shelters, experts said. For some of the shelters, it’s because there has been a rise in their pet population during the last year and a half of the pandemic as owners have had to give up their pets for a variety of reasons, from financial hardship to job changes or health issues. Other shelters have had long-standing overcrowding issues because their states don’t have strong campaigns that encourage pet owners to spay and neuter their animals.
In the D.C. area and other parts of the country, there has been a surge in what animal experts have dubbed “pandemic pet” adoptions, as groups have brought animals from overcrowded shelters in the South to more urban areas such as Washington and found them new homes.
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Some kennels and shelters in the D.C. region couldn’t find enough animals to keep up with demand from residents wanting to adopt a pet as a companion during the pandemic or finding they had more time at home to take care of an animal. Even as people return to their busy pre-pandemic lifestyles juggling kids’ schedules, commutes and work in the office, animal rescuers said they’ve found that few pet owners in the D.C. region have returned their pets.
So many pets have been adopted during the pandemic that shelters are running out
For the new pets that arrived in Manassas, they had quite a journey.
Bissell, who founded her group 10 years ago, said shelters in Louisiana reached out to her as Hurricane Ida neared: “They said they were already full, and the storm was coming — could we help?”
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She said she got the Humane Society of Tulsa, which she has worked with before, to send a team to pick up the pets in Louisiana and drive them back to Oklahoma.
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“We got animals out of Louisiana to help make way for those they would be getting during the disaster,” she said.
Often when a hurricane or disaster hits an area, animals are taken to shelters after they are found roaming because they get separated from their homes and owners in the chaos. Other times, pet owners may leave their cat or dog at a shelter because they have to evacuate quickly and maybe stay at a hotel or other facility that won’t allow pets.
Once the dogs and cats were transported to Oklahoma, they were examined by veterinarians and treated for any medical issues or vaccinations, Bissell said. Her group found 11 other animal shelters and kennels in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia that were willing to take the pets and find them long-term homes.
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On their flight from Oklahoma to Virginia, the dogs and cats were kept in separate, kennel-like crates. Each had a pee pad, enough space to move around and a cup of ice for water. And Bissell said there was air conditioning on the plane.
But it was a rough travel day, with delays due to inclement weather. After the pets arrived in Manassas, staff and volunteers from the D.C.-area rescue groups picked them up to drive them to their facilities.
Gina Hardter, director of marketing for the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, said her rescue group is taking five dogs and four cats. She expects they’ll find them new “forever homes” in the D.C. area over the next two weeks.
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Bissell, 62, said she has always been a pet lover and wanted to help animals. Even though the flights and care of the animals is expensive, she said “it’s about saving lives.”
She said her foundation covered the cost of the evacuation from Louisiana, plus the pets’ care at Oklahoma and flight to Virginia. Her group raises money through fundraisers and donations, and it gets a portion of annual sales from her husband’s vacuum cleaner and products company. The group has helped rescue animals from Alaska and Hawaii and the Lower 48 states, she said.
Although she said she could retire, Bissell said she finds there’s always another group of pets to save: “It’s wonderful to help and know you can make a difference.”