Growing up, Julian Javor dreamed of being a pilot and flying people through the clouds. Today, he’s achieved his goal with one unusual difference - his passengers are the four-legged kind. Javor is the chief rescue pilot for Pet Rescue Pilots, a non-profit organisation he founded in 2019. He flies domestic animals to rescue groups and permanent homes in the United States and Canada. “We have areas that struggle with homeless pets and overcrowding in shelters, whereas other areas do not have that issue,” Javor says.
He began by renting out single engine aircrafts and transporting two dogs at a time, and can now transport 72 animals in a twin engine aircraft. Javor has rescued 982 animals to date, and close to 90% of the dogs he flies to the Pacific Northwest are adopted within a week. “It’s so satisfying,” he says. “I never thought in a million years we’d get to where we are today.”
While not everyone can do the novel work that Javor does, he has one piece of advice for anyone wanting to realise their dreams: “If people were to take something that they loved to do and found a way to do good with it, the world would be a better place.”
Up Next in Season 1
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Danae Wolfe
Danae is the cheerleader that all bugs want on their side. She reminds us bugs are worthy and that life without them would lead to a dysfunctional ecosystem.
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Shai Ager
In Australia, over three million wallabies and kangaroos are culled every year. This practice is legal as the government deems wallaby and kangaroo meat and hides a viable commercial product, but the tight regulations around culling are not always followed. The animals and their joeys are often l...
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Jo-Anne McArthur
Jo-Anne McArthur photographs invisible animals. The ones you don’t see roaming in the wild, or gambolling in your backyard, but the ones on our plates or lining our clothing. “We fail to see them in our lives, yet they are all around us,” McArthur says. She founded We Animals Media in 2003 to exp...
