An Oklahoma non-profit organization chartered a 5 ½-hour flight Saturday to transport 110 dogs and one cat to Oregon, where two local humane societies are confident they will be able to find the pets homes.
The non-profit -- “Fetch Fido a Flight” -- says it spends about $250 per an animal to send animals without homes in Oklahoma to shelters across the country that won’t euthanize them.
The animals on Saturday’s flight were greeted by dozens of volunteers.
Forty dogs and one cat went to the SafeHaven Humane Society in Tangent, which is 30 miles south of Salem. The Oregon Humane Society in Northeast Portland took 70 dogs, including 50 puppies.
Volunteers unpacked the animals’ carriers from the plane, which landed in Salem Saturday afternoon. The animals then were driven to the two humane societies.
“It was a long trip, so they’re getting some food and water and a nice, soft bed,” said Laura Klink, Oregon Humane Society spokeswoman, Saturday evening.
The dogs will be available for adoption on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Oregon Humane Society, 1067 N.E. Columbia Boulevard. That will give staff enough time to make sure the dogs have received any necessary medical care and have adjusted to the time-zone change, Klink said.
All of the dogs who arrived Saturday have been deemed adoptable, Klink said.
The pets from Oklahoma are just some of the thousands of animals who will be transferred to the Oregon Humane Society from other shelters in the Portland area, across Oregon and elsewhere in the country through its “Second Chance” program. Last year, more than 7,000 animals were transferred to the Oregon Humane Society -- including pets who lost their homes during the Santa Barbara wildfires and Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
In all, the Oregon Humane Society finds homes for about 11,000 animals each year -- meaning most of the animals adopted from the Portland shelter didn’t originate there.
Klink said that’s thanks to generous donors who enable the shelter to keep animals as long as it takes to find them homes, and a public willing to adopt them. About 98 percent of the animals do ultimately find homes. Two percent that are determined to be too aggressive or too sick -- and untreatable -- are euthanized, according to the organization.
-- Aimee Green