Pilots To The Rescue

(PTTR)

The name Michael Schneider, also known as “Top Dog”, won’t mean much to most people because the nature of his mission actually means that he is virtually anonymous for a reason, despite the fact that he has brought so much joy to thousands of people.

Michael is a man who started early in life looking after animals; he had a dog sitting business at the age of 11!!

One day, Michael appears to have tried skydiving.

Now, why anyone would jump out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft for fun is beyond me. It is on a par with bungee jumping and deep-sea diving. I look upon all these activities with the same lack of enthusiasm that I view sailing. Regularly, readers will be aware of my aversion to this particular nautical activity; however, I digress.

From this experience, Michael developed a passion for flying and became a commercial pilot, but during one trip, he discovered something that horrified him and would change his life.

Shelter imbalance

He discovered that in some places there were animal shelters that were overcrowded and under-resourced, while in other places there were shelters where there was plenty of space. Unfortunately, the staff of the under-resourced shelters were unable to travel to the overstretched ones due to the distance, funds, and vice versa. The consequence of this imbalance was that thousands of pets were euthanised every year.

Now, before we start criticising the shelters that euthanise, let’s make sure that we are aware of all the facts and discard the hysteria.

The emotive description of “high kill” shelters and “no kill” shelters is very misleading and plays on the emotions of the public. Nobody wants to see healthy animals euthanised; however, I have seen first-hand the horrific consequences of shelters that are heavily over-subscribed and described as “high kill” shelters. Despite the best efforts of all concerned, the animals end up living in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions where food is scarce. They end up sick, needing veterinary attention for which there is no money. The same can also be said of “no kill” shelters because they won’t euthanise and become overcrowded. These animals can also suffer the same fate as a “high kill” shelter in that overcrowding, health issues and a lack of finances are constant problems. It also has to be understood that for some dogs, rehoming to pet homes is not an option, either for reasons of, for example, chronic ill health or aggression. It must be remembered but conveniently forgotten that licensed shelters may have a maximum number of pets as a condition of the licence and are liable for the welfare of that number.

There is no easy solution to this issue. A disturbing statistic that is not very well known is that in the USA alone, nearly one million healthy pets are put to sleep every year because of a shortage of homes and there is believed to be, too date, another million stray dogs on the streets of India alone, and that’s on top of the ones in shelters. While we are on the subject of homeless canines, according to the World Health Organisation, the number of stray dogs worldwide is approximately two hundred million. Yes, you read that correctly (200,000,000), I even had to look up how many 0’s that needed! To give you some idea, these numbers exceed the entire population of the Russian Federation, which is one hundred and fifty-three million. (143,000,000), Another example is that for every UK citizen, there are now almost 3 stray dogs worldwide.

The basic problem is that we have too many dogs on this planet, and until this problem is solved, it won’t go away anytime soon.

Whilst this idea won’t please many, maybe we should ban all commercial breeding of cats and dogs worldwide and install and enforce neutering programs until there is a shortage!!

So, having had my rant, let’s get back to Michael Schneider.

Puppies on a plane

It started with puppies abandoned in a ditch. Unfortunately, there was no room at the local shelter, and they faced euthanasia, but Michael was aware of another shelter that had space, so he loaded the strays onto his plane and flew them to the one that had space. With this single act, an organisation was born.

In 2015, Michael, with his friend Brian Orter, decided to create Pilots to the Rescue, and within 48 hours, he had raised 12,000 US dollars from family and friends.

As of 2024, the organisation, which is non-profit making, has now clocked up over 353,600 miles on over 313 missions and rescued 4488 dogs.

Strangely, the system is fairly simple. The overcrowded shelters transport their excess animals by vehicle, usually at night, to the nearest airport, where they are boarded onto the plane and are met at the other end by the receiving shelter.

With more and more pilots joining the group, the number of animals saved is increasing yearly.

The task doesn’t come without emotional issues, bearing in mind that the planes are small and after every effort has been made to cram as many pets in as is safe, there are occasions where some have to be left behind.

Flying dogs, cats, and other species also puts an additional strain on the pilots. For reasons of comfort for the animals, they fly lower, climbing and descending must be more gradual, and banking is kept to a minimum. Strangely, the pet passengers show very little concern when flying, and when the initial barking and mewing has ceased, the majority fall fast asleep, probably lulled by the constant hum of the engine.

Ironically, the owners of thousands of adopted pets have probably never met the pilots to whom they owe so much.