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During the flooding after Hurricane Floyd, many, many people had to be evacuated from rising water without their pets. It really burned me up to see & hear how different groups had to go "rescue pets" that were "abandoned" during evacuations. These pets were Not abandoned, they were forcibly left behind when their owner was evacuated by the national guard & county deputies. Many of these pets would have helped calm their now homeless owners and provided some stress relief. I understand that people were the primary concern of the National Guard, but do not force someone to leave a pet now and ten days later get on TV asking for volunteers to help rescue the same pets you made the owners leave. And especially do not tell me how vicious these pets are that you are trying to remove from their homes. These pets were not vicious to anyone, until you forced their owner to leave them behind, without food or drinkable water. Now along comes a complete stranger, possibly the same ones that took this pets master, trying to get a pet to go against it's natural instinct by taking it from it's home. The animals are as much family, if not all the family, some of these people have.
These evacuees have had to leave their car, their home, their possessions, (including their TV), and live in shelters. Having personally spent time in a shelter, I can attest to the despair and trauma that comes with the realization that you have "No Where Else To Go", not the most comfortable situation to find oneself in. While the TV stations and national guard, as if to add insult to injury, get on the evening news parading these "abandoned" pets around, telling the viewing public how these animals were left behind and now need a home, claiming that "apparently the original owner no longer wants this pet because they have not come to get it yet". Well, without TV, the evacuee does not have any idea that his/her pet has been taken from their home to begin with. And if they realize that the pet has been taken, who knows what pound or kennel it was taken to. Even if they know where it was taken, without a car, how are they supposed to go pick it up and where on earth are they going to keep it, if they are still stuck in a shelter?
I can relate this from personal experience, my wife & I were evacuated by the National Guard, under the "1 body = 1 bag of clothes" rule. Our cats had to be left behind, and had my wife not smuggled our parrot out in her suitcase, he would have been left also. Believe me it it extremely irritating to see some weenie on the news telling people how these pets were "abandoned" by the owners, when the only thing the owner can think of is how to get back in to get their pets.
WebMaster
Last Revised: October 14, 2006 03:15 PM.
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