Early in 1996 Maggie was talking with Linda Brown of Retired Racers Greyhound Rescue & Adoption, Inc, who operates in Southern California. This amazing concept began with one simple question: Maggie asked Linda, "could you use an airplane and pilot in transporting greyhounds?" Anyone who works in greyhound adoption can guess what Linda's answer was! A resounding "You Bet!"
Most of the flights are between Arizona and California. Gary & Lori Tracy of the Greyhound Adoption League, Inc get greyhounds from the track in Tucson, Arizona. Wings for Greyhounds then helps them move many of these greys to the Los Angeles area.
Those of you who do not work in greyhound rescue may not understand the problem adoption groups have in moving the greys from one place to another. Oftentimes this involves long hours of driving for the humans and hounds. These trips can be exhausting for both parties. Sometimes, the trips involve many different people. One driver may take the greyhounds one leg of the trip, meeting up with a new person at an agreed upon location. It can become intensely complicated! For example: Wings can bring greyhounds from Tucson to LA in 21/2 hours instead of the 11 hours a truck ride would take. "Wings" has volunteer pilots who will fly from Tucson to El Paso and Tucson to Kanab, Utah. Maggie says there are others who help with some different routes. "Wings" will go anywhere they can within the limits of equipment, geographical area and, of course, finances.
The airplane used is a 1960 Beech TravelAir - a small twin engine that came with 5 seats. It now has 2 seats, and a bunch of blankets and pillows for the greyhounds. They fly them with reasonably empty stomachs to avoid upset tummies. Maggie says the greyhounds love this method of transportation - "they plop themselves on the cushions and seem to regard it as a really nice dog trailer."
Two greyhounds are flown at a time. They fly in harnesses with the leashes attached to something inside the airplane. This keeps them secure in case of turbulence, and also stops them from trying to get in the pilot's lap! I can just visualize this - a pilot, flying a plane with a greyhound in their lap! The grey's harnesses and leashes are loose enough so that they can move around a little, but not enough for them to get into trouble. They always fly with 2 pilots - one to fly the plane - and the other to monitor the greys.
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