Volunteer Pilots Help Transport Service Dogs to Trainers and People with Disabilities

• Canine Companions for Independence is a non-profit organization that provides service dogs to people with disabilities — free of charge.
• When the organization had troubles transporting the dogs because of limited available flights, several big-hearted pilots volunteered to help.
• So far, the pilots have delivered 29 future service dogs to Idaho, Oregon, Southern California, Texas, and Washington.

Service dogs undergo a lot of training while they’re still pups. This ensures that they can perform their duties as service animals.

A California-based non-profit, Canine Companions for Independence, helps facilitate this essential training. They then provide the fully-trained dogs to their new forever families — free of charge.

However, the pandemic has limited the number of available commercial flights — which makes it difficult to transport the loving dogs to their humans.

But these difficult times make it more important for people with disabilities to get the help they need.

The organization’s waiting list had about 400 people for just the month of May. This just goes to show that “disability doesn’t disappear in times of crisis,” shared Canine Companions spokesperson Michelle Williams.

So these big-hearted pilots volunteered to help the organization with transport. So far, they have delivered nearly 30 puppies to Idaho, Oregon, Southern California, Texas, and Washington.

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We’ve got @somegoodnews for you! Yesterday, volunteer pilots flew 29 adorable @ccicanine puppies to their volunteer puppy raisers around the country to start their journey to become assistance dogs for people with disabilities. #giveadogajob #somegoodnews

A post shared by Canine Companions (@ccicanine) on May 14, 2020 at 11:30am PDT

Michelle expressed her heartfelt gratitude: “Not only are they giving their plane, but their time, their fuel… They’re going out for full days … it’s just incredible.”

One of the volunteer pilots, Josh Hochberg, shared how he found the long journey “more fulfilling than I could have possibly imagined.”

He ended up getting a puppy of his own!

Canine Companions now has enough volunteers to provide service dogs to the West Coast. They are currently looking for pilots with larger planes so they can also reach the East Coast.

That’s a great way to help make sure these lovable puppies reach their forever families!

If you are a pilot, you can volunteer with Canine Companions today.

Don’t forget to share this story to inform others about the organization’s mission.

Source: inspire MORE