{"id":23023,"date":"2012-06-25T11:31:16","date_gmt":"2012-06-25T15:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=23023"},"modified":"2012-06-25T11:31:16","modified_gmt":"2012-06-25T15:31:16","slug":"hero-rescues-1000th-animal-from-death-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2012\/06\/hero-rescues-1000th-animal-from-death-row","title":{"rendered":"Hero Rescues 1000th Animal From Death Row"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jeff Bennett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a recent June day, Jeff Bennett flew his four-seat plane from the mangrove-dotted Florida Keys, past some angry thunder clouds to the fertile hills of Greenville, Ala. His mission: to save 23 dogs destined for death row.<\/p>\n

Bennett, a 53-year-old retired businessman, donates his time, fuel and plane to Pilots N Paws<\/a>, a South Carolina-based charity that enlists small plane pilots to transport animals from overcrowded shelters that have high euthanasia rates to foster homes, rescue groups and less-crowded shelters that don’t kill the animals.<\/p>\n

Bennett’s been airlifting animals for more than 3 years. Bennett is a dog lover; he has four of his own, including one that he adopted after a flight.<\/p>\n

He’s carried mostly dogs, some cats, the occasional snake and once, a potbellied pig \u2014 earning his small Cirrus aircraft the nickname “All Species Airways” around the Pilots N Paws community.<\/p>\n

But this month was special. On the Greenville trip, Bennett picked up his 1,000th animal.<\/p>\n

“This is a mile marker,” said Bennett, who had a pointy party hat decorated with pirates picked out for the special canine.<\/p>\n

It’s a number few of Pilots N Paws’ 2,800 volunteer pilots reach, said Deborah Boies, the group’s president and co-founder.<\/p>\n

TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press<\/p>\n

Caption: In this photo taken Friday, June 15, 2012, Jeff Bennett, of Big Pine Key, Fla., a volunteer pilot for the non-profit charity Pilots N Paws, holds his 1,000th rescued animal near his airplane in Greenville, Ala. (AP Photo\/Tamara Lush)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Bennett donates his time, fuel and plane to Pilots N Paws, rescuing animals destined for death row. He just rescued his 1000th animal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[63,61,133,163],"class_list":["post-23023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-animals","tag-charity","tag-community","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}