Tales of Flying Tails, Sonoma’s airborne animal rescue service
Ken Wayne, the former evening anchor on KRON TV, and Lou Rivas, husband of Sonoma City Council member Patricia Farrar-Rivas, are flying at-risk animals to safety.
At-risk animals are either domestic animals that are in a shelter or have been injured and need to be transported to another place where they can be adopted or treated, or they are orphaned wild animals like bear cubs, coyote pups, bobcat kittens, eagles, hawks, owls, seals, and turtles that need to transported.
Holding a Peregrine Falcon with Doris Duncan of Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue prior to take off to return it to San Diego County after rehab.
The non-profit got its start when Ken volunteered with a group called Pilots and Paws. “Captains can put in their information about where they’re located and where they are willing to fly,” Wayne explains. In this way dogs in a kill-shelter can be taken to a non-kill shelter for adoption or to a sanctuary.
Wayne was featured in some stories on KRON-4 TV and began to get calls about wild animals. His reputation spread, and now he gets a lot of calls, primarily from Sonoma County Wildlife rescue.
He’s been flying his Cessna since 1999, and telling stories on-air, hence the name of his non-profit organization, Flying Tails. “We tell our stories, so it’s a double meaning,” he says. “We became a regular feature on KRON, highlighting the adventure of flying but also telling the story of these animal situations. The animals are the feature of the story, and 99-percent of the time there’s a happy ending.”
There are four pilots involved in their operation, operating three aircraft. Wildlife Rescue calls us an “animal Air Force,” Wayne adds.
Recounting an animal transport adventure, Ken tells of two orphaned bear cubs in the winter of 2018. Their mother had been hit and killed by a car. The Lake Tahoe rescue organization contacted him. The two cubs were too young to survive on their own. A wildlife sanctuary in San Diego County offered to take them in. “We found out about one other cub that was alone and my wife and I flew to retrieve it and brought it back to join the two orphaned cubs. We put a giant bear crate into our plane, following the federal and state rules, and after ten hours of flying, ended up delivering them. They were about 35 pounds each.”
Carrying a bear cub for a medical check up at Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue.
“They’re initially agitated, but once we get to about 10,000 feet, between the drone and vibration of the engine and the cooler temperature, they almost always fall asleep,” Ken adds, “We’ve never had a problem.”
Flying Tails has now done dozens of transports. Ken’s plane is hangered at the Petaluma airport where they have night operations. Lou is also a pilot and flew out of Oakland for many years for the Civil Air Patrol, auxiliary of the Air Force, on the emergency service side of operations.
“There are animals that would have been put down had we not picked them up,” Ken explains. “We’re busy and can easily fly one trip a week.”
As a nonprofit, their funding is based on grants and donations. The Flying Tails website can be viewed at www.flyingtails.org. Ken is now retired and devoting his time to Flying Tails.
“It’s very gratifying,” Ken explained. “When you open a crate and an eagle steps out and flies away, it takes your breath away.”
By Larry Barnett
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You are the kind of people who restore my faith in humanity! Have you ever thought of creating Tee Shirts for sale to benefit your nonprofit? I would buy one! You could have a plane with the pilot and a dog waving and sticking his head out …. A great design might make you some extra gas money!
You are absolutely Angels for Animals.
Thank you soooooooo much.