Again, it's another idea that sounds intuitive. If we extend your statement of "the money that exchanges hands in a rescue situation would just go farther if we kept it closer" to wider parameter that logic falls apart because it's based upon one thing, effectively using money.
If our only parameter is that we should use every dollar as effectively as possible in our own communities, and nothing else should matter, then we live in this administration's utopian society.
Foreign aid? Nope, better spent here, and only here. Immigration? Nope, border is closed to everyone because that money is best spent here only on Americans. Foreign trade? Zero. That money should never the US. But, wait, each state has to follow this practice now, followed by every county, city, and town. No one buys anything outside their border, because money is best utilized based upon arbitrary geographic boundaries.
The system falls apart really fast thinking that way. The notion of local works for some things, but it's not objectively better that all things be local. Here's an example.
Do you know how we relieved the most poverty in the history of humanity? Free trade. From the 1980s until today China was able to bring nearly a billion people up from extreme poverty and build a modern economy. How? Largely because the US sent low paying jobs and purchased a fortune in goods. Do those billion people think the local plan is better? Of course not, and that's why trade wars are so toxic.
Buy local is a great concept when you go to the farmers market and buy your food, but in terms of dealing with the suffering of life it doesn't have the same value. In fact, it does the opposite. The catchy phrases like "buy local" also mean "never send money outside your community" and that's bad.
Were there costs to bringing those people out of poverty? Yes, but well worth it. It's the same for the life of a dog. There's no more inherent value on any life just because of where they were born. My life is worth no more than someone born in Ukraine or Rwanda. I won the birth place lottery to be born in a wealthy country, but that just means I have a responsibility to help who I can, not hoard my resources from everyone not in America.
So, yes, I do understand there's a cost involved, and includes environmental costs, but that's fine with me when dealing with life. Those two dogs being sent on a commercial plane was flying with or without them, and their adoption money going to another country is a small price to pay for what they did. I have no doubt they spend plenty in their local community. Just look where they met.