Dogs marked for euthanasia typically come from municipal shelters where dogs cannot be turned away, and this leads to overcrowding and a need to find a solution to that problem.
"It really is great because we talk about helping, healing, and adopting — that's our motto here at the Ulster County SPCA," said Ulster County SPCA Executive Director Gina Carbonari.
Carbonari explained a better alternative to euthanasia for dogs in these shelters.
"[By these transports] we're giving them a second chance at life, we're saving lives by doing this," Carbonari said.
The SPCA partners with Pilots to the Rescue, an organization founded by a pilot who wanted to combine his love for aviation with his passion for saving animals.
"We enroll other pilots [and] volunteer pilots to help us rescue animals. At this point we've probably done over 25 missions. We've done dogs, cats, turtles, [and even] did a red wolf rescue," said Michael Schneider.
The SPCA says the dogs rescued Wednesday would be up for adoption in a few weeks.