Puerto Rico’s Pooches Jet Off to the Hamptons
Stray dogs are flown to new homes on mainland on private planes.
Every few months, Citigroup banker David Brownstein and his team fly dozens of stray dogs in Puerto Rico to rescue operations in the Hamptons and the Jersey Shore.
By Aaron Kuriloff
WALL STREET JOURNAL
PUERTO RICO— Citigroup banker David Brownstein, one of the executives charged with helping this U.S. commonwealth through its fiscal emergency, launched his latest rescue effort at dawn on a San Juan airstrip.
Once airborne for the mainland, Mr. Brownstein, Citi’s head of public finance, got up from his seat to reassure a nervous flier, a black, 20-pound stray dog named Dulce Maria.
Dulce Maria gazed wide-eyed around the private jet, which was littered with comforts, including overstuffed chairs and trays of pastry—a far cry from scrounging for scraps in the dumpsters of beach bars. Mr. Brownstein and his team coaxed the shivering canine out of her pet carrier, fed her a turkey sandwich from the plane’s catering, swaddled her in a blanket and set her in the lap of one of the dog rescuers, a model.