As the Atlantic hurricane season gets underway, St. Nicholas Animal Rescue (SNAR), Dominica’s only non-profit animal welfare organization, is issuing an urgent call for island-wide community assistance to pull off a landmark mission: transporting 140 rescued dogs and cats to permanent loving homes overseas next weekend.
Scheduled for June 13 and 14, the initiative dubbed the “Freedom Flight” has already cleared major hurdles: the dedicated transport aircraft has been secured, and international partner rescue organizations are on standby to receive the animals once they land. What the mission still lacks is on-the-ground local support to get the vulnerable animals from the rescue’s staging area to the airport on time, ready for their journey.
SNAR is actively recruiting volunteers to fill a range of critical roles between 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 13, and 6 a.m. on June 14. Tasks include bathing and prepping animals for travel, assembling and labeling transport crates, organizing required travel documentation, and assisting with loading and ground logistics. The organization is particularly in need of truck owners and licensed drivers to move the animals and their equipment from St. Nicholas University in Castle Bruce to Dominica’s Douglas-Charles Airport, the departure point for the flight. Interested helpers can contact the rescue at +1 (767) 245-6000 or sign up in person at the Castle Bruce staging location, and SNAR emphasizes that any amount of donated time is deeply appreciated.
For the 140 animals set to travel, this flight marks more than just a journey—it marks an escape from a past of trauma and the start of a new life. Every animal on the flight was rescued after experiencing neglect, abandonment, starvation, abuse, or cruelty, many of them spending years in the shelter waiting for a second chance.
The mission itself is a milestone for SNAR, which has overcome immense adversity over the past eight years to keep serving Dominica’s vulnerable animals. The organization has survived repeated facility relocations, multiple eviction threats, and most recently a catastrophic landslide that wiped out the shelter’s only access road, putting the entire rescue operation at risk of collapse. Even amid these challenges, SNAR has continued to provide daily care for hundreds of animals across its facilities, and the Freedom Flight comes at a critical juncture to ease overstretched resources as hurricane season begins. Moving 140 animals to new overseas homes will not only change those animals’ lives for the better, but will also allow SNAR to continue providing high-quality care for the animals that remain at its Kalinago Rescue sanctuary.
SNAR has already publicly thanked its international partners for making the mission possible. Special recognition goes to Badass Animal Rescue, which provided organizational leadership and critical funding to get the mission off the ground, and Wings of Rescue, the non-profit that has donated the use of the transport aircraft. Locally, the Dominica Football Association has already pledged its support to the initiative, and SNAR is now calling on other local sports teams, community groups, businesses, service organizations, and individual residents across the island to join the island-wide effort.
“This is not just a SNAR project,” explained Dr. Golnaz Naderkhani, President of SNAR, in a statement ahead of the flight. “It is a community project. Every volunteer, every truck driver, every donor, and every supporter plays a part in helping these animals reach safety and find loving homes.”
Founded to serve the island’s unprotected animals, SNAR remains the only non-profit in Dominica dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming abused, abandoned, neglected, and vulnerable animals from across the country.