As Hurricane Isaias approached and moved across the Gulf Coast, Mobile County Animal Shelter and Best Friends Animal Society moved 81 dogs and cats out of the storm’s path to partner shelters, Best Friends said in an Oct. 11 update. The transfers made room for local shelters to take in animals that might become lost or displaced during the storm and gave the moved pets a place outside the projected impact area. It was a chain of handoffs across several states, not one shelter acting alone.
Best Friends’ count came in stages. On Oct. 9, the organization said it had moved or helped move 52 pets from Mobile County in the previous two days, with more transports planned. The next day, it reported 13 more dogs were on their way from Mobile to Ohio. By Oct. 11, Best Friends said 81 dogs and cats had been moved with Mobile County Animal Shelter ahead of and during the weekend. Those dated snapshots are progress reports; they should not be added as separate totals.
The Oct. 11 update credited eight Best Friends network partners: Good Mews Animal Foundation in Marietta, Georgia; CARE Humane Society in Auburn, Alabama; Humane Society of Harris County in Hamilton, Georgia; A New Leash on Life in Brownsboro, Alabama; Oktibbeha County Humane Society and Oxford Animal Resource Center in Mississippi; SICSA Pet Adoption and Wellness Center in Ohio; and Pets of Ohio Rescue Team in Dayton. The receiving capacity was spread across a wide region.
Greater Birmingham Humane Society was part of the preparation. BhamNow reported on Oct. 9 that staff and volunteers walked dogs and cats, loaded crates into vans and headed to the airport for a flight to shelters outside the storm’s path. The report said the Birmingham group worked with BISSELL Pet Foundation, Wings of Rescue and MSPCA-Angell. Moving animals out left room at GBHS for pets from shelters in Isaias’ path and helped coastal shelters preserve resources they might need in the coming days.
In Massachusetts, CBS Boston reported that 33 dogs from Alabama arrived on Friday afternoon at MSPCA-Angell’s Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem by emergency evacuation flight. The organization said the trip protected them from potential flooding, power outages and other storm-related dangers. The dogs were to complete Massachusetts’ required 48-hour quarantine and receive needed medical care before becoming available for adoption. The reporting does not establish whether those 33 dogs were part of Best Friends’ later 81-pet count, so the figures are not added together here.
WHIO documented another arrival: SICSA, in Washington Township, Ohio, welcomed 13 dogs displaced from Alabama on Oct. 12. The station reported that SICSA’s veterinary team would check the dogs during the week and that they were expected to become available for adoption in the coming days. Best Friends had already listed SICSA as one of its receiving partners on Oct. 11, but the reports do not say whether WHIO’s 13 dogs were included in Best Friends’ 81-pet total. The counts are kept separate here.
The purpose of the transfers was practical as well as immediate. Best Friends said moving adoptable pets out of the area created critical space at Mobile County Animal Shelter for pets that might become lost or displaced during the hurricane, improving the chance that they could be reunited with their families. The organization credited Mobile County staff with long drives to partner shelters, even as workers’ own homes were threatened.
That capacity can matter after a storm, when shelters may need room for animals brought in by residents or responders. The reports describe transports, shelter arrivals, quarantine, medical checks and a plan for later adoption. They do not report that particular pets had already been reunited with owners, so the story’s positive result is the network’s safe placement and room for incoming animals, not an unverified reunion count.
Each shelter handled a different part of the response: local teams prepared animals and crates, transport partners moved them, and receiving organizations made space for care. The arrangement also reached beyond the Gulf Coast, with reports from Salem and the Dayton area showing how far those handoffs could extend. No single source provides a complete roster of every animal on every flight, so the individual arrivals remain attributed to the outlets and organizations that reported them.
As of its Oct. 11 update, Best Friends said the 81 transferred pets were safe and on their way to finding loving homes. The operation shows how early coordination can give shelters room to handle the next need: caring for pets already displaced, while keeping a path open for families to find them again.
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