The devastating wildfires in Southern California continue to impact people, pets and properties. Non-profits are hitting the ground to help provide aid on many fronts. The Humane Society of North Texas has partnered up with Wings of Rescue and Best Friends Animal Society to fly adoptable pets to DFW.
“We’re creating hope on both ends, Wings of Rescue is flying in hope and the Humane Society of North Texas is receiving it, so to me, I think it’s just what compassion looks like in action,” said Cassie Davidson, senior director of marketing, communications and public relations for the Humane Society of North Texas.
Davidson also serves as the Senior Director of Social Awareness for Wings of Rescue, a non-profit that flies pets from disaster areas such as an earthquake or hurricane to other shelters. They also help fly animals when a shelter is overpopulated.
Next Sunday, Wings of Rescue will fly two planes to Dallas-Fort Worth with around 150 animals.
“Wings of Rescue has stepped in to pull unowned pets that have been sitting in the shelter waiting for adoption. They’re going to pull them to make room. They’re going to create empty kennel space so that the evacuees’ pets can then come in and they can be reunited with their pets. So Wings of Rescue will be flying the stray and those that have been surrendered to Los Angeles shelters to North Texas,” explained Davidson.
On Saturday 80 pets were flown to Utah and on Sunday another 80 animals were taken to Oregon, Washington and Seattle.
As they prepare for the dozens of dogs and cats coming to the Lone Star State, Davidson said they need a lot of help from the public.
“We need people to step up and take pets into their homes a few days and few weeks and donations and be able to pay for their care fosters and funds,” said Davidson.
If you are interested in fostering, volunteering time or making a donation, click here. People can also email foster@hsnt.org to sign up to open their homes.
“The skies were just lit up with the fire, and my heart sank.”
Davidson, who flew into Los Angeles on Friday, said it was ‘surreal’ flying into the area and seeing the wildfires from above.
“The skies were just lit up with the fire and my heart just sunk. My eyes started watering, just thinking about all these people who have been devastated by this wildfire. There was no discrimination, this wildfire burned homes down that were billionaires, but it also burned down homes of people, laymen, people who work very hard for everything that they have,” expressed Davidson.
She said seeing the devastation in person broke her heart.
“We’re hearing a lot of stories of people, and I get so emotional about it, because there’s a lot of stories about people who were working that day, and they got news that their homes, that the embers had flown miles over, and had been in their neighborhood,” said Davidson as she teared up. “So they’re rushing home only to be stopped and they were not allowed to enter, they weren’t allowed to pull their pets from their homes, and they were sitting watching their homes and everything in it, including their pets, burn to the ground.”
Davidson took a moment to express her disappointment in the cruelty of comments on social media regarding people whose pets were at home during the fire.
“They were at work, they weren’t in their homes, and so I think this is a time for us to extend compassion and not let that hatred run rampant, but really step up as a community and extend whatever support you can, whether it is financial, whether it’s donations to local shelters, but we need to be the change,” said Davidson.
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