No home, will travel: OKC-area shelter dogs find fur-ever homes via nonprofit flight

Over three dozen dogs from an overcrowded Oklahoma City-area shelter found new homes last week after a nonprofit transported a plane of pooches to Oregon.

These temporarily homeless canines flew on board the brightly colored Cessna Caravan operated by Dog Is My Copilot, which transports shelter animals to new homes around the country.

Kellee Robertson, manager of Norman's Animal Welfare Center, said the dogs were taken to Street Dog Hero, a nonprofit in Bend, Oregon. Many of the dogs and puppies already had a foster home waiting when they landed on Saturday.

Street Dog Hero is one of the outside shelters that Norman Animal Welfare Center has preexisting arrangements with. The shelter also has several flights per year scheduled in advance with Dog Is My Copilot. Since last year, Norman has sent 161 dogs to Street Dog Hero.

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"We are obligated to help animals, so we have to do whatever we can do to get dogs out of the building," Robertson said. "It's just one of the cogs in the wheel that helps us make space and help to avoid euthanasia if possible."

The Norman Animal Welfare Center is a no-kill shelter, which is a designation given when least 90% of animals are placed in a new home.

The shelter has a multifaceted approach to reducing the population inside its walls, including adoption, agreements with rescues and transport organizations, and a spay and neuter policy.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Dog rescue flight relieves overcrowded Oklahoma animal shelter