Sidney's Freedom Flights Gives Second Chance to Shelter Dogs

Look up in the sky! It's a dog! It's a plane! It's a dog in a plane?

A Woodbridge couple is in the midst of a GoFundMe campaign in an effort to find support for their project that transfers homeless dogs from kill shelters to shelters that can give them a better chance at life.

Shannon McGinn is a creative arts therapist at a psychiatric hospital and also a cancer survivor and certified running coach. 

Sidney Dos Santos is a corrections officer of 24 years, a NJ National Guardsman, and a part-time pilot for a skydiving company in southern New Jersey. 

They run Sidney's Freedom Flights, a pet project that combines their love of animals with Dos Santos's pilot skills to transfer shelter dogs from kill shelters to shelters that can house them for longer periods and give them a better chance at adoption. 

Dos Santos and McGinn find the dogs two ways: They search the website of Pilots N Paws, a nonprofit that coordinates transport for shelter animals. They also work with a liaison for Poor Paws Rescue, a Middlesex County-based nonprofit dedicated to moving animals out of kill shelters.

Once a shelter is located that can take the dogs in, Dos Santos then flies a small general aviation airplane to pick up the animals and transport them to their new shelter. 

Sidney's Freedom Flights take off about four times a year, McGinn said.

The first trip they went on was down to the Dillon Shelter in South Carolina, to pick up a mama dog and her nine puppies. But when they arrived, that plan changed quickly.

The people who brought the dogs to the airport also offered up four more puppies to be taken. None of the dogs had leashes. 

The airport staff scrambled to get ropes for makeshift leashes, and the dogs had to share crates. But in the end, Dos Santos and McGinn ended up flying back with 14 dogs in the plane, along with a friend who came along for the trip to help manage the dogs.

"And we were full, we couldn't have fit another dog in that plane," McGinn said.

McGinn and Dos Santos said the cause is near and dear to them. They found their own dog, Enzo, abandoned and sick on the side of a North Carolina road while the two were on vacation.

After coaxing him into their car and getting him a lot of veterinary care, Enzo has turned from an ailing animal who didn't know how to walk up stairs into a loving, social member of their family, McGinn said.

He even enjoys joining Dos Santos on flights.

"When we go to the airport he gets really excited and jumps in the plane and knows his seat," Dos Santos said. 

As of December 19, Sidney's Freedom Flights raised $1,926 through the GoFundMe campaign, with a goal of $3,000.

They have a few limitations to their work: the ice and snow of the winter months prevents flights, and they can only make a trip if a shelter has confirmed that it will take the animals.

"We just can't go down and empty a shelter and bring them home and then dump them in New Jersey shelters," McGinn said. 

The cost of flying is the biggest prohibitor however, with flights costing between $800-$1,200 per flight. They're looking for a little bit of money to help offset the cost of moving the dogs. 

Dos Santos said he would do it ever day, if he could.

"I wish we could go down all the time, but we can't," McGinn said. 

McGinn said they bear no ill-will against the kill shelters they deal with, and feels especially connected to the Dillon Shelter in South Carolina, where their first canine passengers originated from.

McGinn said she originally had the perception that the kill shelters don't care about the dogs they house. That's not the case at all, she said. 

"They do everything they can to try to get their dogs out," she said.

To learn more about Sidney's Freedom Flights, visit their Facebook page.