West Mifflin nonprofit travels to Texas to help animals in need - TribLIVE

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When Walter Schwarz and Dave Stash received a call from the Pittsburgh Aviation Animal Rescue Team for a mission to Houston, Texas, they didn’t think twice about going.

By Friday, the duo had packed a suitcase within 24 hours of learning of the mission that would send them driving to Texas to rescue animals from local shelters as the city grapples with devastation after subfreezing temperatures, snow and ice caused widespread power outages across the state earlier this month.

That devastation caused infrastructure problems that forced shelters to evacuate animals to keep them safe, according to Brad Childs, president and co-founder of the Pittsburgh Aviation Animal Rescue Team, also known as No Dog Left Behind, which is based out of the Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin.

“There was a domino effect down to the shelter level and so when shelters lose power and don’t have line of sight as to when that power’s going to come back in a stable form, combined with freezing temperatures, there was a mass evacuation that was taking place behind the scenes,” Childs said.

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After receiving a call Thursday from Best Friends Animal Society, a no-kill shelter that has locations across the country, stating an original transport for the animals fell through, Childs got to work organizing volunteers to make the trip to rescue around 15 dogs from BARC Animal Shelter and Adoptions in Houston.

Realizing they would not be able to take their airplane, which is also used for rescue missions, without leaving some animals behind, Schwarz, 67, of Pittsburgh, and Stash, 72, of Port Vue, hopped in a PAART van and started their drive to Houston Friday morning. The duo arrived in Texas Saturday after staying overnight in Memphis, Tenn.

By Sunday, the dogs were loaded into the van for transport to Best Friends Animal Society in Atlanta, Ga. Schwarz and Stash, who also volunteer at The Free Store in Braddock, will return back to Pittsburgh Monday night.

“You reach a certain age in life you say, OK, I’m going to do something,” Stash said in an interview with the Tribune-Review. “I’ve had a good life, I’m healthy, let’s do something to help people who need help, whether it’s the people at Braddock Free Store or whether it’s these critters down there in animal shelters.”

According to Childs, the original trip would have transported the dogs to New York, but because the volunteers were forced to drive they shortened to trip to Georgia. Childs noted officials in the organization are raising money to purchase a larger plane that would allow them to help animals in farther locations across the country.

The nonprofit uses its current airplane for rescues in Florida and Mississippi, while also completing closer rescues in West Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina.

“It seems like the little mighty group in Pittsburgh … is making its footprint on the national stadium,” Childs said. “That’s the exciting part because we have the capability and the ability and the willingness to go do these types of missions. This is what we live for — national disasters is exactly, it’s at our core. This is where we want to play.”

Childs noted that the dogs rescued by Schwarz and Stash are ready for adoption, and were waiting for forever homes when the winter storm hit.

“We were able to bring those dogs out of a place where they were in waiting and more importantly out of a dangerous situation,” said Childs. “It was pretty bad down there.”

Megan Tomasic is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 724-850-1203, mtomasic@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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