BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — With dog euthanasia being a major issue here in Kern County, one group of pilots is taking to the skies to help these pups out.
This Cessna 421 has a complement of ten: Three humans and seven eager dogs looking for a home.
“Personally, I’ve done, we’ve done 180 dogs in the last two years that we’ve rescued…dogs and and cats,” said Jef Wagner. “This, by far, will be a record number.”
Pilot Jerry Wagner has flown dozens of flights relocating animals to save them from euthanasia. He’s one of the volunteers for Pilots and Paws, a group of flyers looking to save animals from overcrowded local shelters.
“If people didn’t do this, these poor dogs would would have to be euthanized. And there’s a lot of dogs that we have picked up that were on the list for the next day or the day after. This area from Bakersfield to Sacramento and Fresno, the shelters are over packed, over filled,” said Wagner. “They’re kill shelters, and they just can’t handle it.”
On Tuesday, these dogs will be flown to the Central California Lab Rescue in Sacramento.
However, many dogs on the ground aren’t so lucky. In 2025, 1,867 dogs were euthanized in Bakersfield shelters. While slightly less than the year before, this means nearly one third of the dogs at the shelter were killed.
Robbie Miller, manager of SOS Dog Rescue, says there’s a lot of work to be done on the ground to save even more.
“Right now, spay and neuter is very important because there is too many animals and not enough homes, and this is one of the only things that we can do to get a manageable population,” said Robbie Miller.
This overpopulation is what forces shelters to euthanize their dogs. SOS Dog Rescue just celebrated completing 10,000 spay and neutering operations, hoping to limit population growth among Kern County pets.
To do your part in helping in this crisis, dogs are available to foster at any time. Even a foster for 24 hours could be enough to save a life.
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