About 30 dogs rescued from an Alabama shelter ahead of Hurricane Isaias are touching down at Beverly Regional Airport on Friday afternoon, the first leg of a journey that will end with them up for adoption at Massachusetts shelters in Boston, Methuen, Salem, and Centerville on Cape Cod. The dogs range in age from 2 months to 11 years old and include German shepherds, terriers, poodles, chihuahuas, Labrador retrievers, and pit bulls.
The flight was organized through MSPCA-Angell's natural disaster relief program with help from the BISSELL Pet Foundation, according to Boston 25 News. The dogs came from the Greater Birmingham Humane Society in Alabama, which activated its emergency disaster response this week as Hurricane Isaias barreled toward the northern Gulf Coast. By Friday morning, Isaias had strengthened into a Category 3 storm, with winds reaching 120 mph by mid-morning Friday, prompting emergency declarations across Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi, as reported by The Guardian.
The timing of the storm itself is unusual. Isaias is the latest-forming first Atlantic hurricane of any season since October 8, 1905, after a strong El Niño pattern suppressed tropical activity across the basin for months, per the same Guardian report.
Clearing Kennel Space Before the Storm Hits
The Greater Birmingham Humane Society moved quickly once the storm track became clear, transferring adoptable pets already in its care to northern partners so it could preserve kennel space for animals displaced or injured once Isaias made landfall. The shelter also issued an urgent public appeal this week asking its community for donations of dog crates and cat carriers, according to the shelter's own social media post, since secure transport containers are essential for moving that many animals by air and ground on short notice.
Getting the dogs out wasn't something the Alabama shelter could manage alone. The flight was made possible by BISSELL Pet Foundation's Animal Incident Management program, an initiative the foundation launched in February 2023 to support disaster response, shelter support, emergency management, and animal transport, as detailed by the Carolina Journal. The program was created specifically to close gaps in disaster response that became apparent after Hurricane Ian.
A Mandatory 48-Hour Hold Before Any Adoptions
Once the dogs land in Beverly, MSPCA-Angell staff will transport them to the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, where Massachusetts law requires them to spend at least 48 hours in state-approved isolation before anyone can even consider adopting them. Under state regulation 330 CMR 30.08, all dogs imported from out of state by shelters or rescue groups must clear that mandatory observation window to guard against the spread of infectious disease.
The dogs are headed for adoption at shelters in Boston, Methuen, Salem, and Centerville on Cape Cod.
The flight fits a pattern Massachusetts shelters have leaned on for years, pulling in dogs from regions with disaster-driven overcrowding or simply higher stray intake than local adopters can absorb. Hoodline previously covered dogs rescued from a Texas ranch arriving at a different northeastern shelter earlier this week, part of the same broader trend of interstate rescue transport feeding regional demand.
