183 Shelter Dogs Take Off From VNY Airport Amid Overflow Crisis
iSpyVNY - January 12, 2026
Van Nuys, CA — Friday night into early Saturday morning (Jan. 9 - 10, 2026), a private plane carrying 183 dogs and cats bound for new lives in the Northeast and Midwest departed Van Nuys Airport (VNY) as part of a major animal rescue mission designed to relieve pressure on overcrowded Southern California shelters.
According to FlightAware flight data records, the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia departed from Van Nuys Airport (VNY) at 1:10 AM PST Saturday. The nonprofit Wings of Rescue, which transports at-risk pets from high-pressure areas to regions with greater adoption capacity, transported cats and dogs of all sizes and breeds to partners across the Country.
On its social media page, the organization wrote, “Wings of Rescue safely transported 183 dogs and cats from severely overcrowded shelters in Southern California to receiving partners in the Greater Chicago area, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maine. These pets were running out of time, and this mission gave them a future.”
The flight was sponsored by philanthropists David and Tara Dollinger and organized after television host Giuliana Rancic brought the Los Angeles shelter crisis to the attention of Wings of Rescue President Nelda Corbell. Rancic live-streamed from the airport early Saturday as the animals were loaded for departure.
This was not Wings of Rescue’s first major airlift in Los Angeles. One year ago, in January 2025, amid a surge of devastating Southern California wildfires — including the Palisades and Eaton fires — the organization partnered with Best Friends Animal Society to fly dozens of pets out of overcrowded and fire-impacted shelters. On Jan. 11, 2025, eighty four cats and dogs were flown from Los Angeles County to Best Friends’ sanctuary in Utah, and a second flight the following day took additional animals to Seattle.
The urgency of such flights—both for chronic overcrowding and emergency response—comes against a backdrop of ongoing criticism of Los Angeles’s municipal shelter system.
An analysis by the Los Angeles Times found that from January through September 2024, the number of dogs euthanized in Los Angeles Animal Services shelters jumped by 72 percent compared with the year prior, while cat euthanasia also rose. Critics said these increases reflect systemic overcrowding and understaffing that the city has struggled to address.
The Times has been particularly critical of Mayor Karen Bass, who took office in December 2022 after pledging to make Los Angeles a national model for animal welfare. In a feature updated May 30, 2025, the Times reported that former Los Angeles Animal Services General Manager Staycee Daines described conditions within the shelter system as marked by animal cruelty and suffering.
Shelters in Los Angeles remain structurally overwhelmed, with advocates calling for expanded capacity, increased funding, and policies aimed at keeping pets out of shelters altogether—such as spay and neuter programs, foster care incentives, and owner support services. “Obviously you want to prevent the problem so we don’t have to do this,” Bill Rancic said in the Wings of Rescue social media video.
For now, sponsored flights like Saturday’s offer a lifeline to animals in peril, though they are no easy feat. “Large-scale, cross-country flights like this don’t happen by chance. They require precise coordination, trust, and countless hands working toward the same goal,” Wings of Rescue said in a social media post Sunday, Jan. 11. Coordination included the cooperation of Los Angeles shelters.
Readers can visit Wings of Rescue's website for information or to DONATE for future life-saving flights.