On Nov. 15, a plane with 53 rescue dogs onboard crashed onto a Wisconsin golf course.
The twin-engine turboprop plane was en route from New Orleans to Waukesha when it needed to make an emergency landing. CBS reported that three people were sent to the hospital with non-serious injuries. According to Matthew Haerter, Waukesha’s Assistant Fire Chief, the plane “belly-landed” on the fifth hole green. As the plane descended, trees ripped off both its wings.
Chief Haerter also stated that the crash produced “a significant [jet] fuel spill.” Almost 300 gallons spilled over the golf course into a nearby marsh. Officials are cleaning up the spill and investigating how the crash occurred.
On a more positive note, Haerter also said, “While this is a very large incident…this could have turned out so much worse…The pilot did exactly what he should have done.”
Flying Rescue Dogs to Forever Homes
During a press conference, Maggie Tate-Techtmann, director of organizational development at the Human Animal Welfare Society (HAWS), said the crash injured several dogs, but none seriously. Regular flights bring at-risk rescues from packed shelters in the South to cities in the American Midwest and Northeast. Thankfully, the director said all 53 dogs were still adoptable.
Later that week, HAWS revealed the healed rescues as the ‘Western Lakes Loves”. The dogs originally came from Alabama and Louisiana, and HAWS took in about half of them. By the weekend, people had already adopted most of those dogs. The rest are at local shelters awaiting their forever homes.
Tate-Techtmann told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “All dogs are doing remarkably well. I tell[the team] all the time to be prepared for the unexpected, and the team did a remarkable job meeting the needs of these dogs today. Some are already out having fun in the snow and are on the road to finding their forever homes”.
