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MSPCA bringing dogs affected by California fires to Massachusetts
The MSPCA-Angell is transporting nine dogs impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires to its Salem shelter.
The MSPCA-Angell is taking in nine dogs impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires, the organization announced Friday.
The dogs are coming from the Pasadena Humane Society and will take refuge at the MSPCA’s Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem.
The transport follows the arrival of 37 cats affected by near-record snowfall in Louisiana. While there were far fewer animals on this latest transport from California, logistics were highly complicated, according to Josie Waldron, MSPCA-Angell Relocation Manager.
“Cross-country flights are really expensive and hard to coordinate,” said Waldron. “The plane needs to be completely full, which is a huge number of animals—more than all shelters in Massachusetts and even New England could take in at once. So, we needed to find somewhere in the middle for the flight to land—in this case Delaware—where many shelters and organizations, including us, could rendezvous and split up the animals.”
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The dogs were scheduled to land in Delaware Friday night on a flight arranged by Best Friends Animal Society. From there, they will be met by MSPCA-Angell vans, which will take them on a seven-hour journey to Salem.
The dogs will be available for adoption following their state-mandated 48-hour quarantine and after receiving any necessary medical care, according to the MSPCA.
The California dogs range in age from 1 to 10 years old and include mixes of hounds, German shepherds, pit bulls, and cattle dogs.
Waldron said it’s likely the shelter could take in more animals as wildfire relief efforts continue. But in order to do that, dogs must be adopted to free up space.
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“We would love for people to come out and adopt these dogs, but we also have a lot of amazing dogs already in our care looking for homes,” Waldron said. “If now’s not the time to adopt, we’re also looking for families who can foster dogs, which would allow them to decompress in a home setting while also freeing up space in our shelters.”
More information on fostering dogs is available at mspca.org/foster. Those looking to donate to help offset the transport costs and care for the new arrivals can do so at mspca.org/disaster.
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