Waukesha Animal Shelter Coordinates Arrival Of 60 Rescue Animals Via Transport Flight

WAUKESHA — The Humane Animal Welfare Society coordinated the arrival of 60 rescue animals via a specialized transport flight on Tuesday, part of the national "Clear the Shelters 2026" campaign, with every crate accounted for and all 60 animals processed into intake, medical screening, and housing within 4 hours of touchdown.

The operation was overseen by HAWS logistics director Tom Bradley, who has spent the past six weeks coordinating manifest counts, crate assignments, and a staggered intake schedule designed to move animals from tarmac to kennel with what he called "minimal downtime per unit."

"The transport went flawlessly," Bradley said, standing beside a folding table stacked with intake clipboards. "Every crate was accounted for, every animal was accounted for."

"The transport went flawlessly. Every crate was accounted for, every animal was accounted for."

— Tom Bradley, HAWS logistics director

A Four-Hour Window

Bradley said the 4-hour intake window, from the moment the aircraft's cargo door opened to the moment the final animal was assigned a kennel number, represented a modest improvement over HAWS's performance during last year's Clear the Shelters event, which he recalled taking "closer to 5 hours, mostly because of a printer jam at the microchip scanning station."

This year's operation used three concurrent intake lanes, color-coded folders, and what Bradley described as "a laminated flowchart that finally made sense to everybody," including seasonal volunteers who had not previously worked a large-scale transport event.

Of the 60 animals, HAWS staff said the count included 34 dogs, 22 cats, and 4 rabbits, all of which arrived with existing veterinary paperwork from the originating shelter network. Bradley said 58 of the 60 required no additional documentation beyond a standard intake form, while 2 needed what he termed "minor paperwork follow-up," which he declined to characterize further.

Behind The Manifest

Bradley said he had personally reviewed the flight manifest three times before wheels-down, cross-referencing crate tags against a master spreadsheet he keeps on a clipboard rather than a tablet, "because a tablet can die on you and a clipboard can't."

He said the most stressful moment of the operation came roughly 40 minutes in, when a crate numbered 27 was briefly logged as crate 72 by a volunteer, a discrepancy Bradley caught during a routine recount and resolved without needing to re-open any crate already moved to housing.

"That's the kind of thing that keeps me up at night before one of these," Bradley said. "Not the animals. The animals are always fine. It's the paperwork that gets you."

What's Next

HAWS will hold a follow-up adoption event August 9-10, when the 60 newly arrived animals become eligible for public viewing following the standard post-intake observation period. Bradley said staff expect strong turnout, noting that a similar transport event in 2025 resulted in 41 of 52 animals being adopted within the first weekend.

Asked whether he planned to attend the adoption event himself, Bradley said he intended to be present "in a supervisory capacity," and that he would likely spend most of the weekend re-checking crate return logistics with the transport network's coordinating shelter.