Hero NYC pilot dedicates his life to rescuing thousands of unwanted animals: ‘We want to save them all’
NY Post
New York native Michael Schneider’s passion for rescuing animals came at a young age — when he was just 6 years old.
And he’s been flying high about it ever since.
“That’s all I ever knew growing up,” he told The Post, remembering how his family would go to the local SPCA, a no-kill shelter, in Briarcliff Manor in Westchester County and bring home dogs and cats.
“Beyond that, I used to take in animals from the neighborhood. I was the little boy that took in the injured bird with a broken wing and nursed it back to health,” he reminisced. “I even had a pet sitting business when I was 11 years old.”
Later, after discovering a passion for flying following a skydiving trip, he chose to become a commercial pilot — and then combined his two loves.
In 2015, he founded the airborne angels group Pilots to the Rescue, a transportation nonprofit that saves at-risk animals in need of relocation and shuttles them from overcrowded and under-resourced shelters to partner rescues where they can be in a safer environment.
