One of the more needed, but less sexy elements of animal rescue is transportation. So Greenpoint resident and commercial pilot Michael Schneider is tackling that issue head on with his non-profit organization Pilots to the Rescue.
Founded in 2015, Pilots to the Rescue’s mission is to prevent homeless and vulnerable pets from being euthanized and give them the best possible chance at a better life by combining Schneider’s love of aviation and rescue animals. His first-ever mission was to save a litter of abandoned puppies scheduled for euthanasia in North Carolina due to shelter overcrowding. Since then, the group has rescued 3,191 pets across 264 missions.
In the years that followed, he would balance the org with his corporate career, before making the switch to focus solely on PTTR during the pandemic. He now works for PTTR from his home office in Greenpoint, where he lives with his wife, a teacher at PS 86 in Bushwick, and four sons.
All the animals picked up by Pilots to the Rescue are adoptable and connected with East Coast shelters and adoption centers. More recently, they’ve put a lot of their efforts towards rescuing homeless animals displaced or pets surrendered during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (And Schneider confirmed that they have systems in place to ensure animals rescued are not wanted pets being separated from their owners.)
“After a disaster, sometimes the airport’s the only thing that’s open and the roads are impassable,” Schneider noted. “So we’re probably gonna do more disaster response, we all know we’re gonna see more of these major storms. So we can bring supplies in for humans and then take animals out.”
The plane isn’t their only means of transportation, even if it is the most eye catching.
“We’ve pivoted the last couple years to ground transport, which is how most people are doing this work,” Schneider explained. “The planes are sexy, they’re a novelty, but they’re so expensive that we don’t dispatch them for any little rescue. But a lot of people ask how they can get involved — if you have a large vehicle and you’re a good driver and willing to drive, that’s a much needed volunteer service.”
Which is even true if you ask around among more localized rescue organizations needing to move animals to forever homes and vet appointments, especially given how much rarer it is to own a car in NYC.
Any support is always appreciated, since Pilots to the Rescue is mostly volunteer-run aside from Schneider and a few paid employees, and they’ve been lucky enough to get some financial backing over the years through generous crowdfunding donations and partnerships with groups like BISSELL Pet Foundation (yes, like the vacuums). That being said, since their focus is solely on transport, they recommend bringing things like food and supply donations to your local shelters.
And to answer one of the more common questions they get, pets mainly just feel sleepy on the planes, with the most stressful parts being loading and take-off (planes don’t go above 8,000 feet with animals). But Schneider also notices the change he sees in every animal during the journey, and notes how intuitive they can be.
“They’re very scared when you put first [an animal] on a plane and sometimes a little scared getting on their crates, but then they realize that they’re going to a better situation,” he said. “So animals are always so intuitive and surprise me every day when I work with them, that’s the payback for doing this type of work.”
Do you know this “charity” sends out misleading sweepstakes entries for big cash prizes to little blue haired old ladies, siphoning “donations” just so the founder can buy and fly planes. In what world gassing up planes to fly dogs from one shelter to another is good for the environment or even cost effective?
Where are you people getting all this information? A lot of this like hearsay, really doubt you know them or those that run the charity personally. If you did, maybe you wouldn’t comment the way you did.
I’ve gotten a lot of backlash from many people after buying Twitter and turning it to X, most of the comments were so one-sided that it made me laugh, kind of like what I am reading here.
The founder of this charity and his wife are slumlords. Don’t buy in to the farce.
It’s so unfortunate to see these bad neighbors being featured like this. The founder and his wife feel so entitled that they drag out traffic cones to save their parking on public streets. They leave trash out days ahead of pick up in front of neighboring properties causing fines for their neighbors. Not to mention they are straight up slumlords extorting and harrasing tenants.
This guy and his wife have harrassed a beloved business that are tenants in their dilapidated building for years, trying to force them and other tenants out during covid. This is a classic scenario these days, crafting a phony public persona, when they are some on the most truly awful people.
Im trying to understand why the author and the founder use the word “sexy” to describe a plane and rescueing dogs?!?!?
Creepy and weird.
Me thinks the founder likes flying planes and wants other people to pay for them.
I hope I never see Greenpointers try to claim that they have journalists on staff again. Utterly laughable to publish a pro landlord puff piece in the absence of any support for an upstanding local business.
Co -sign with. “JOURNALISM”
Greepointers writing a fluff piece on a slumlord. This confirms that “hard hitting” JOURNALISM is based on what perks people offer you.
I think that independent of considerations about the real reasons that conduct those persons to rescue pets, those ones are much more important than people like those who have written comms like the posted above
Got it, expensive “sexy “planes that are bad for the environment are fine because they are rescuing puppies. But slumlords and bad neighbors don’t matter…because, puppies.
Noted.
Those, who have written these negative comments, are obviously bad people unable of love and generosity. They judge others according to what they would do.
Actually no, the people that are unable of love and generosity are the founder and his wife. It’s not loving or generous to harrass and put your tenants in harms way.
You know them personally? I’m so glad I don’t if you are telling a firsthand account of the truth! What is this X or Bluesky?
Vexatious tenant Citroen does not pay their rent — a cautionary tale to vendors doing business with them.
Weaponizing the comments section to fight their non-payment case is low, as is dissing the Greenpointers publication. Citroen is the bad neighbor here.
Eater has comments section, too. Just sayin’.
Maybe because Citroen can’t pay their rent because the restaurant is always empty and the food is mediocre and overpriced. $12 french fries, ha!
Greenpointers should do a restaurant review of Citroen.
You’re literally the landlord’s attorney lol
Why would a business pay rent to a slum lord who doesn’t fix their building? A slumlord that allowed a floor and roof to cave in? A slumlord that lies cheats and steals? French fries are $12 because your scummy landlord friends are greedy trolls.
Sun human? More like “Sub human” amiright!!!.
Their bad behavior has been well documented as a neighbor on this block. This fluff piece forgoes to mention the entitlement of this founder and his spouse. We deal with the entitlement of leaving mountains of trash out days ahead of pick up. Or that time they were illegally keeping bees on their roof that were escaping into neighboring buildings, stinging a child with an allergy sending them to the emergency. This family had harrassed every single business they have rented to. Even forcing out residential tenants to illegally combine apartments for family members. That building is going to collapse from neglect.
To shed some light, these property owners were served with a supreme court harrassment suit. After many years of suffering incredible damage due to the neglectful property owner. They have refused to repair their building and compensate this business for absorbing costs due to their negligence. They refused to work with this business and 3 months later retaliated with an eviction instead of making the building safe and being a responsible property owner. The universe will certainly sort these folks out.
I’m curious about the specific sources for these comments. Have you personally interacted with donors who had negative experiences? It’s important to consider all perspectives, especially when discussing sensitive topics like charitable giving.
Just ask them about their “sweepstakes” entries they send out to elderly people.
Yo-Donald Trump poster…
You sound like a scumbag attorney getting unhinged in the comment section on a hyper-local blog.
You know what’s actually sad? Screwing with good people and projecting your toxicity on others. Ya’all should just ask all the prior tenants what they think of these folks. They won in closing that business, but ya’ll NEVER going to win public opinion. Get bent.