Fort Worth is bringing in over 200 pets rescued from Texas floods
The Hill Country flooding devastated Kerr County and the surrounding areas, leaving not only hundreds of people but also hundreds pets displaced, and North Texas is helping take them in.
On Thursday around noon, a plane landed at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, carrying 117 cats and dogs from shelters in flooded San Angelo and San Marcos.
Wings of Rescue, an animal advocacy nonprofit organization, coordinated the flight. The nonprofit is dedicated to transporting “abandoned, homeless and at-risk pets” from disaster areas to shelters with available space, according to its website.
This is the second flight run by Wings of Rescue that brought animals displaced by the Hill Country floods to Fort Worth, bringing in a total of 242 animals.
The nonprofit partnered with the Humane Society of North Texas for the flights. During this arrival, Humane Society volunteers crowded around the plane, hauling crate after crate from the conveyor belt to trucks.
Despite the cluster of crates and constant movement, all of the animals were loaded into the trucks within 20 minutes. Two sisters, Savannah and Victoria Stites, regularly volunteer for Wings of Rescue. They commented on how well everyone worked together.
“It’s kind of a feeling of awe,” Wings of Rescue Co-President Nelda Corbell said about unloading the animals. “Because you see so much support from all these great people, and they’re the ones that are truly making the difference.”
From the trucks, the animals will be treated by vets and placed in North Texas shelters and foster homes, Corbell said. Once the shelters are full, Wings of Rescue will transport the remaining animals to Best Friends Animal Society in Utah.
The San Diego-based nonprofit takes animals already in the shelter prior to disasters to make space for the animals displaced by the flood, aiming to prevent euthanasia and reunite lost pets with their families, Corbell said.
“I think for me personally, just hearing the shelter staff say, had we not come they would have had to euthanize, and just being able to alleviate that burden for them and allow them to focus on their community saving more lives,” Corbell said about the moment that stuck with her.
Wings of Rescue also provides humanitarian and veterinarian aid, along with pet supplies, to disaster areas, according to their website. They brought this aid to the flood center on Tuesday.
Ric Browde, CEO of Wings of Rescue, said he felt relief once the animals arrived, but that their work is never done. “What didn’t we bring? Now we got to go do that. Got to save more,” Browde said. “It’s the myth of Sisyphus.”
Browde asked that people donate to the nonprofit. Some of the transported animals will be up for adoption this weekend at two Fort Worth Petsmart locations, according to Davidson.
This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM.