Operation Kindness is doing whatever it takes to find homes for animals in need, even looking beyond Texas. Our Interstate Animal Transport Program, launched in July 2022, aims to decrease the euthanasia of dogs and cats across Texas and the southern states by safely transporting animals from southern U.S. source shelters to northern U.S. destination shelters and rescues, where there is a greater demand for animals, via ground and air transport. Today, we’re celebrating our 1,000th animal transport through the program!
Why We Transport Animals
According to the ASPCA, while some shelters have an intake higher than they can place locally, other shelters have more demand for adoptable animals than they can keep up with. By using safe transport practices, we can reduce the euthanasia rate for animals by getting them to areas of the country where there is space and demand for larger animals compared to the southern states.
Transporting Animals Safely to New Homes
The Interstate Animal Transport Program uses both ground and air transport methods to get dogs and cats to their new homes. If an animal is being moved by ground transport, our team drives animals to their destination shelters via crates in Operation Kindness vans. For air transport, we partner with both Dog Is My Copilot and SWATT (Southwest Animal Transport Team) to get our animals safely in the air and to their new destination. Since launching the program, Operation Kindness has transported animals from overpopulated shelters in the south to all along the northern United States, including, but not limited to, Washington, Wisconsin, Virginia, New York and more. We are happy to transport animals from all municipal source shelters within Texas, with a particular focus on assisting Dallas Animal Services.
So far, we have relied on fosters, boarding and other shelters to house animals while we prepare them for their transports. In 2024, we’ll open our new Lifesaving Partnerships Hub, which will be the primary facility for our transport animals to stay during this preparation period. We can’t wait to see our Interstate Animal Transport Program grow with this new space!
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