Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Help a Maui pet find a mainland home

Are you planning a trip to the Hawaiian Islands that includes a return flight from Maui? With absolutely no expense to you and only a few minutes of your time, you can rescue a shelter dog or cat that would otherwise languish at the well-meaning but over-burdened Maui Humane Society.

Thanks to the generous participation of Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines, pets can travel from Kahului Airport in Maui to Portland International Airport. Generous donors have paid for the airfare. All that's needed are ticketed passengers that the pet can be assigned to. Don't worry -- it's only paperwork! Once you've signed the papers at the airport, you are free of worries. The pet travels in cargo and once you've arrived at PDX somebody will pick up the pet and from there it will be delivered to its new loving home.

This wonderful program, known as Wings of Aloha, managed in 2013 to deliver more than 200 homeless
pets to new homes in Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Calgary, Canada. The Maui dogs and cats are flown off only to areas that can guarantee new homes for them. There are more petless homes in the Northwest that are just itching to be hooked up with some homeless pets from Maui, so as a traveler please do this one small thing that will make a huge difference to pets that are worthy of a second chance.

Just give the Maui Humane Society a call at (808) 877-3680 ext. 17, or email Jamie Fitzpatrick at jfitzpatrick@mauihumanesociety.org. She'll get your return flight info and arrange for someone to meet you at check-in to make sure the pet is listed on your ticket. 

One more thing. If you want to help out even more, the Maui Humane Society welcomes volunteers to walk dogs and pet cats every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. Kids 10 and older, in the company of an adult, are welcome to come play with the pets. 

Mahalo!