Operation Pets Alive sends puppies on rescue flight up North for better chance of adoption

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas—About 50 puppies got closer to finding their forever homes as they boarded a flight to New England Tuesday morning from the Lone Star Executive Airport.

Operation Pets Alive, a non-profit organization that collaborates with local shelters to increase the rate of successful adoptions of animals, facilitated the transport of the puppies to partnering animal shelters in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Since its beginning, the organization has successfully transported 2,300 dogs to new homes.

“We actually started the transport program before we became an official non-profit,” Marcia Piotter, president of Operation Pets Alive, said. “We thought we’d just try one and see how it went, and it was amazingly successful so we just kept it up.”

Piotter said the organization started with a small, private plane through Cloud 9 Rescue Flights, and began running ground transports through Peterson Express Transports Pets, LLC. Then, through a generous donation by a local family, Operation Pets Alive added jet flights once a month that help transport a larger number of puppies, clearing more space in the local animal shelters.

“It’s so sad because the puppies are overwhelming. It’s not unusual for 50 puppies to come in in one day, so that’s a lot of local adoptions,” Piotter said. “We don’t need that number of puppies when there are animals dying at the shelters.”

Three years ago, county commissioners allowed the management of the local animal shelter to be privatized, and the person who won the bid was a for-profit company. Recently, that business was sold, and the shelter is under new management, which has caused some concerns among the volunteers with OPA.

“Reflecting on some of this, we work with a lot of business partners — both for-profit business and non-profit business,” Piotter said. “I think a lot of it comes down to where the manager wants to take the shelter. If they’re wanting to take it to a place that’s going to provide good care for the animals and a high live-release rate, then we would support that. We think it’s fair to pay yourself if you’re a veterinarian and things like that. I don’t have a problem with business people doing business and making a salary.”

Despite the opposition to the new managers, Piotter said she believes she could support the management’s proclaimed new direction.

“There’s still a lot of work to do,” Piotter said. “That goal is very lofty, so it’s going to be very challenging.”

Operation Pets Alive constantly seeks support from their community members through donations, but they strongly encourage people to foster animals. Piotter said people are inclined to only fostering one puppy at a time, but she wishes she could convince people to take a litter at a time.

“Puppies are comfortable together; they relate to each other; they comfort each other,“ Piotter said. “We’d like the public to brave up and give it a try. There’s a lot of support out there for fostering, but that is probably the reason that animals don’t make it out of shelters — we don’t have fosters for them.”

Anna Clark, a local foster and volunteer for Operation Pets Alive, found out about the organization through the Montgomery County Animal Shelter.

“What drew us to them was that it’s just a two-week commitment, and you know you’re getting a dog out of the shelter,” Clark said. “Our local shelter here is always over capacity, so it helps to get them out and make room for more dogs.”

For more information about adopting or fostering through Operation Pets Alive, visit the website provided below.