The 5th East Kowloon Animal Carnival was Successfully Held. Residents and Pets Joined Together to Promote Animal Protection, Drug Prevention, and Fraud Prevention

The Regional Crime Prevention Office, Kowloon East (RCPO KE) successfully held the "5th East Kowloon Animal Carnival" at AquaBeat 01 in Kwun Tong on January 25th. The carnival, themed "Animal Protection, Drug Prevention, and Fraud Prevention," attracted over 1,800 residents, students, and families. Many attendees brought their pets, engaging in the on-site activities together in a joyful atmosphere, reflecting the spirit of human-pet harmony in the community.

The Regional Crime Prevention Office, Kowloon East (RCPO KE) successfully held the "5th East Kowloon Animal Carnival" at AquaBeat 01 in Kwun Tong on January 25th. Photo source: the Hong Kong Police Force

Lovely animals presented at the carnival, Photo source: the Hong Kong Police Force

Since October 2011, the Hong Kong Police Force has implemented the "Animal Watch Scheme", which has now developed into the Animal Watchers Programme (AWP). Collaborating with various related government departments, professional institutions, universities, and animal welfare groups, the AWP focuses on combating acts of cruelty to animals through a four-pronged approach of education, publicity, intelligence gathering, and investigation. The carnival this year, as one of the community outreach activities of the AWP, aimed to convey a message of animal care and respect for life to the public.

Ms. Tse Tsui Yan (middle) enjoyed the carnival with the attended students. Photo source: the Hong Kong Police Force

The fraud prevention education should start from childhood. Photo source: the Hong Kong Police Force

Ms. Tse Tsui Yan, the Regional Commander of Kowloon East, addressed the ceremony, thanking the cooperating organizations and community members for their support. She pointed out that animal care and maintaining community safety share a common belief, both based on respect for life and fulfilling responsibilities. She emphasized that drug prevention and fraud prevention are also crucial to community safety, urging residents to be vigilant and work together to maintain community harmony.

The carnival combined educational and interactive activities. Photo source: the Hong Kong Police Force

The carnival combined educational and interactive activities. Key events included the "Animal Best Friends" photography exhibition, showcasing students' work to convey messages of animal care; the introduction of student ambassadors from "Animal Care Corner" schools who brought their school's animals to personally explain the importance of animal protection; a police dog demonstration to help residents be acquainted with the work of police dogs; and the promotion of an animal adoption booth for the importance of responsible pet ownership. Several organizations dedicated to animal care and promoting human-pet harmony also participated, conveying the information of animal protection through exhibitions and interactive activities.

The police dog demonstration helped residents to be acquainted with the work of police dogs. Photo source: the Hong Kong Police Force

The carnival also promoted fraud prevention and drug prevention information, featuring interactive educational booths that deepened citizens' understanding of crime prevention, drug prevention, and fraud prevention via interesting games, as well as enhanced the community safety awareness. Moreover, a pet play area and photo spots were also set up, allowing residents to enjoy a period of joyful time with their pets. The dramas played by students and dance performances added to the festive atmosphere, creating a friendly community environment.

Many residents have enjoyed a period of joyful time with their pets. Photo source: the Hong Kong Police Force

BRANDY STATION, Va. (AP) — On a sparkling late-fall Sunday at a rural Virginia airfield, 16 careworn passengers were getting off a flight that changed, even saved, their lives.

Some looked bemused, some wary, some enthusiastic as they were carried off a small private plane onto the tarmac at Culpeper Regional Airport. Then they were escorted to a grassy patch for a potty break and fresh air before catching their connecting flights.

The three cats and 13 dogs — including a skinny, shy pit bull mix named Jenny and her seven puppies — were part of a complex weekly airlift conducted by a far-flung, loose-knit group of volunteer pilots and animal lovers. For some years, they have brought pets from overwhelmed Southern animal shelters to foster and rescue groups farther north.

But this day was special: The volunteers relayed 117 animals, about twice as many as usual, to mark the anniversary of a tragedy that transformed the group: member Seuk Kim's fatal crash on a rescue flight on Nov. 24, 2024.

“Everybody really feels it," said Sydney Galley, the co-founder and CEO of the group, now called Seuk’s Army. But, she said, “he would be so excited to see us with so many dogs.”

Kim, 49, had realized a childhood dream of learning to fly and was looking to make a career of it after decades working in the financial sector.

The Springfield, Virginia, man also liked animals. So after connecting with Galley and others through an animal rescue discussion board called Pilots N Paws, he was in. All in — Kim did multiple animal flights a week and recruited other pilots. He also brought batteries, diapers and other supplies to people in need after Hurricane Helene last year.

On his last day, Kim left Culpeper with four dogs, delivered one to a Maryland airport, then took off with the rest for Albany, New York.

His 1986 Mooney M20J plane went down in New York's Catskill Mountains after he reported hitting turbulence. The crash killed Kim and one of the dogs, but the other two survived and were adopted.

“I don’t think I can do this anymore,” Karissa Gregory, who with Galley coordinates the flights, told other volunteers after Kim's death.

But one of the pilots, Kley Parkhurst, reminded her that aviators assess and accept the risks of flying. He thinks of Kim whenever he flies animals and dips his plane's wings in tribute if he passes the crash site. Still, Parkhurst, who also does charity medical flights, had no qualms about continuing the animal transports.

“I just want to keep the legacy that we started together going,” Parkhurst said recently.

While Kim's family and friends mourned, news coverage drew attention, new volunteers and more partners to the grassroots nonprofit coordinated largely via WhatsApp chats and Facebook posts.

A year later, what is now Seuk’s Army transports two to three times as many animals as it did before, Gregory said.

Pilots use their own planes and pay flight costs, which run hundreds of dollars an hour. Galley, her husband and co-founder pilot Jerry Stephens, and other volunteers have largely underwritten veterinary bills, supplies and other needs.

But the Piedmont, South Carolina-based group has started taking organizational and fundraising steps, including a 5K charity run last June at the Culpeper airport, the group's ad hoc hub. Airport manager Tanya Woodward says a local grant writer is looking for potential donors to fund a dedicated outdoor area for the animals.

In a nation where shelters and rescue organizations take in millions of cats and dogs annually, and hundreds of thousands are euthanized for reasons that can include lack of space, rescue flights open new foster possibilities for agencies like the Heard County Animal Control Center in Franklin, Georgia. With its 20 kennels always full and animals sometimes doubled up, the center works with Seuk's Army to transport as many as eight pets a week across the country, director Kyli Putzek said.

She said Heard County doesn’t euthanize animals because of overcrowding these days, but “it wouldn’t be the same story” without the rescue flights.

Volunteers wore T-shirts bearing Kim's photo as they unloaded, walked, played with, cleaned up after, and reloaded the dozens of animals that came through Culpeper on the memorial flights last month.

Stephens and others had flown the creatures from South Carolina, Georgia and other Southern locales. Other pilots would take them on to Northeastern airports, in a logistical puzzle that ultimately spanned about 16 airfields, seven planes, many cars and vans and quick adaptations to weather forecasts. Gregory monitors them more anxiously in the wake of Kim’s death.

When departure times neared, leashed dogs waited on the tarmac like a crowd at an airport boarding gate, in a loose line with various degrees of fidgetiness.

There was Daisy, a 96-pound bloodhound whose owner had died, and Copper, a handsome hound who had been surrendered amid a divorce. Middie had been abandoned, pregnant, in Georgia. Jenny, the pit mix, and her 8-week-old puppies had been facing euthanasia at an Alabama shelter, Gregory said.

Seventy-five hundred feet (2,300 meters) over the mid-Atlantic countryside, co-pilot Michael Nuzback turned around in his seat.

“Hello, puppies. Come say hi!” he said, unlatching a crate and helping one of Jenny’s pups out.

Another followed for a brief stint up front with Nuzback and pilot Stephen Nur. The volunteer pilots were flying a turboprop plane owned by Pilots to the Rescue, a decade-old charity that collaborates periodically with Seuk’s Army. Founder Michael Schneider said he appreciates the group's work, and “there's no shortage of rescuing animals” to be done.

The pups, which seemed more interested in the pilots' laps than in the view of the Chesapeake Bay, were tucked back in their crate before night fell over the Eastern Seaboard.

They and the other dozens of animals aboard passed silently near the lights of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and New York's Kennedy Airport, flew over the dark of Long Island Sound and landed at Groton-New London Airport in Connecticut. It was the final destination for Jenny, her puppies and some of the others; the rest were flying on to New Jersey.

In the small, bright Connecticut terminal, volunteers with local rescue groups cradled the puppies before heading off to foster homes in the damp New England night.

“They’re all headed to people’s homes,” volunteer Danielle Barth said. “A warm house.”

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Bella Cunningham holds a sleeping newborn puppy, Nov. 23, 2025, at Culpeper Regional Airport in Brandy Station, Va. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

Katelynn Aldarondo says goodbye to the nameless dog she grew close to, Nov. 23, 2025, at Culpeper Regional Airport in Brandy Station, Va. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

Pet crates, including one that survived a fatal crash in November 2024, are stacked up beside a plane, Nov. 23, 2025, at Culpeper Regional Airport in Brandy Station, Va. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

A puppy sits on pilot Stephen Nur's lap during a flight organized by the animal rescue group, Seuk's Army, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jennifer Peltz)

Sydney Galley pets a dog on a plane before passing it off to other volunteers, Nov. 23, 2025, at Culpeper Regional Airport in Brandy Station, Va. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)