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BEAUFORT, N.C. – Pilots with the nonprofit Cloud 9 Rescue Flights flew about a dozen animals from Carteret County to their new homes Saturday. They made a stop in Beaufort to pick up animals that otherwise would have been euthanized.

Pilot Ted DuPuis founded the organization to get animals out of overcrowded, high kill shelters in the south and bring them to rescue organizations and adoptive homes in the north.

“In the northern states, they'll have a much better probability of getting into a home where these animals would almost certainly be killed down here,” he said.

Cline 9 works with the Carteret County Humane Society and a rescue organization called Encore Pets.

“We tend to choose animals that have spent a significant amount of time at the shelter, and we've all spent time with them to know they interact well with other dogs, they interact well with the people that they meet,” Encore Pets President Joanna Shertzer said.

There are plenty of pets to choose from. Carteret County Humane Society Director Candace Christopherson said the group gets about 15 surrenders or strays every day and that there aren't enough homes in the area to accommodate the amount of animals they have.

DuPuis says overpopulation is mostly due to a lack of spaying and neutering. Those programs are pushed more heavily in the north. But his flights are making a difference.

“We have turned from being a high kill shelter to being a pretty low kill shelter, I'd say,” Christopherson said. “We have not had to euthanize for space reasons for about four months now, and that's starting from when we had our first flight.”

Cloud 9 Rescue Flights operates primarily through donations.