Auburn pilot always on alert status to rescue dogs from euthanization

Jerry Wagner was at the Auburn Municipal Airport one day in late 2023 when a single-engine aircraft returned shortly after takeoff. The panicking pilot told Wagner the oil pressure warning light came on and asked if Wagner's plane was ready. "I got four dogs in the plane, I gotta get them to Redding," Wagner said, retelling the man's story. Wagner replied, "Let's go. We took them to Redding, and that's how I got started." Wagner has since been a volunteer for Pilots N Paws, a nationwide nonprofit that takes to the sky to help rescue dogs. Along with his wife, Nancy, and assistant Robert Hewett, they've rescued 198 dogs in the last two years, flying as many as 18 at once from Central and Southern California pickups to rescues in Northern California and Reno. "If we didn't do this, these poor dogs would have to be euthanized," Wagner says inside his hangar at the Auburn Airport while Hewett works inside the animal transport, a twin-engine Cessna 421. "There were lots we've picked up that were on the list for the next day or the day after." Hewett was prepping the plane for a trip to Kern County on Wednesday, Feb. 11, this time with a FOX40 Sacramento reporter on board to share their story. Wagner says shelters in the Bakersfield, Visalia and Fresno areas are "over-packed, over-filled" with animals, "and they just can't handle it." The area includes several kill shelters, and the stories are heartbreaking. He mentioned a great Dane/lab mix they transported from Fresno to Carson City. Molly was tied up at a store and left there. Three pups were put in a garbage bag and thrown into a trash container, saved by a random person who found them. Wagner recalled another person whose dad was murdered and a home was needed for the deceased man's pets. Air Wagner picked up a female St. Bernard in Victorville who was "skittish, frightened" and covered in ticks. They flew her to Cameron Park, where she was shaved and had each tick removed. At a hoarder house, a giant dog was chained to a pole in the dirt and heat, but he still possessed a positive-enough outlook to wag his tail. "That was Big George, a 130-pound golden retriever," Wagner says. Some go to Dogwood Animal Rescue in Sonoma County, others to Casa de Love in Redding. Lindy Turner started Casa de Love, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, in 2017. She knew all about Big George and described today's animal overcrowding as "horrific." Wagner says his plane is always on alert status. Through Pilots N Paws email, which is constantly in motion with calls for pickup, he saw an urgent call for eight dogs that needed transporting out of a homeless encampment in Fresno with Reno as the destination. "We were in Auburn at 1:45. We touch down in Fresno at 3 o'clock," recalls Wagner, whose plane can reach 200 knots. "We loaded up the dogs, nine of them, three are pregnant, and we're looking for a rescue that spays and neuters, vaccinates, chips them, grooms them. We blasted off from Fresno, went straight over the mountain, straight over Yosemite and BOOM! About 55 minutes later, we're in Reno." He says he can always count on more animals waiting to be picked up than the initial email called for. "When you go there, they say we have two more. They dog pile on – literally," he says. Wagner says he's allergic to dogs but, "I can put up with them for a little bit." So when his work day is done in Oakland, he'll see if anyone needs a pickup. Wagner says Pilots N Paws' needs more volunteers – in the air and on the ground – and donations, though pilots "don't take money. This isn't what it's about." He says some pilots are retired, and they're aviation enthusiasts and dog lovers combined. "If I have a reason to fly, let's go fly," he says as one plane after another departs the Auburn Airport with dusk approaching Monday. "Most pilots are just passionate about flying. You can fly and fulfill with saving animals."