Posted on 09/04/2005 12:04:39 PM PDT by Fawn
AP Photo GAGB101
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) - As Valerie Bennett was evacuated from a New Orleans hospital, rescuers told her there was no room in the boat for her dogs. She pleaded. ``I offered him my wedding ring and my mom's wedding ring,'' the 34-year-old nurse recalled Saturday. They wouldn't budge. She and her husband could bring only one item, and they already had a plastic tub containing the medicines her husband, a liver transplant recipient, needed to survive. Such emotional scenes were repeated perhaps thousands of times along the Gulf Coast last week as pet owners were forced to abandon their animals in the midst of evacuation.
In one example reported last week by The Associated Press, a police officer took a dog from one little boy waiting to get on a bus in New Orleans. ``Snowball! Snowball!'' the boy cried until he vomited. The policeman told a reporter he didn't know what would happen to the dog.
At the hospital, a doctor euthanized some animals at the request of their owners, who feared they would be abandoned and starve to death. He set up a small gas chamber out of a plastic-wrapped dog kennel.
``The bigger dogs were fighting it. Fighting the gas. It took them longer. When I saw that, I said 'I can't do it,''' said Bennett's husband, Lorne.
Valerie Bennett left her dogs with the anesthesiologist, who promised to care for about 30 staff members' pets on the roof of the hospital, Lindy Boggs Medical Center.
``He said he'd stay there as long as he possibly could,'' Valerie Bennett recalled, speaking from her husband's bedside at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital.
On Saturday afternoon, she said she saw a posting on a Web site called petfinder.com that said the anesthesiologist was still caring for the animals.
Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy, who was helping with relief efforts Saturday, said some evacuees refused to leave without their pets.
``One woman told me 'I've lost my house, my job, my car and I am not turning my dog loose to starve,''' Kennedy said.
Kennedy said he persuaded refugees to get on the bus by telling them he would have the animals taken to an exhibition center.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals picked up two cats and 15 dogs, including one Kennedy found tied up beneath the overpass next to an unopened can of dog food with a sign that read ``Please take care of my dog, his name is Chucky.''
The fate of pets is a huge but underappreciated cause of anguish for storm survivors, said Richard Garfield, professor of international clinical nursing at New York's Columbia University.
``People in shelters are worried about 'Did Fluffy get out?''' he said. ``It's very distressing for people, wondering if their pets are isolated or starving.''
The Bennetts had four animals, including two beloved dogs.
They moved to Slidell, La., in July when Valerie took a job at an organ transplant institute connected to Lindy Boggs. Lorne, a former paramedic, is disabled since undergoing a liver transplant in 2001.
On Saturday, as Hurricane Katrina approached, both went to the hospital to help and took all four animals with them.
They fed their guinea pig and left it in its cage in a patient room. They couldn't refill its empty water bottle because the hospital's plumbing failed Sunday, they said. They poured food on the floor for the cat, but again no water.
``I just hope that they forgive me,'' Valerie Bennett cried.
Two words: Noah's Ark. Remember that story? It's from the Bible. You know, the holy book you profess to believe in. And what did God direct Noah to do as the flood approached? Hmmmm...? Build an ark and save only people? Nope. God directed Noah to build and ark and save people and animals together.
So you can take your warped "Christian perspective" and take it up with The Man upstairs. As for me, I have no use for people with your robotic, rigid, cold mindset.
God also directed His people to slaughter others at times.
I have no problem with that, in that God directly commanded it even though it was not how He wanted us to live in a daily manner.
Saving the animals allowed Noah and the rest of us to eat animals that would have been extinct otherwise.
There is no fear of dogs or cats going extinct from leaving them to die in New Orleans.
It is not a "warped" perspective to save people over animals when forced to choose as they must in New Orleans.
But then, I also believe in Christ's Great Commission, which requires people to be alive.
Amen, my pets are part of the family....
I'd give up Bucko----most of these people who talk like that do so to to make themselves feel like they are better than others....it's a ego thing.
I've donated money to the organizations that are there rescueing these poor "furbabies" .... I challenge all who love animals please donate so that they can continue the rescue....
Talk to Noah....you hardly have a Christian perspective.
Well said!
Dittos---I donated too.....some people don't realize how much a 'specific' pet means to people.
It was a retort to your implied cruelty. I doubt that this persons thinks about other people the way they think about you. You asked for it!
My initial comment was this:............
And like I said, unnecessary.
I maintain that this is how it must be
Oh? And you're the Master of the Universe!
You might just wind up attacking the positions of others over my own.
Not likely. You just don't don't get it, do you? Its not your position that I disagree with, to the contrary, we are basically in accord. It's the fact and manner that you are compelled to state the obvious. You're doing it for your own self satisfaction and not the enlightenment of the thread. You're the kind of person that enjoys telling people bad news. You thrive on the perceived power to make others feel bad. Shame on you.
I can't believe I'm reading this statement. I have had pets, (dogs and cats) my entire life, cried and grieved for them when they died. But I would NEVER have put one of them above a decent human life.
And I apologize for sounding harsh, but can you imagine if the rescue workers had to save every pet of every person in distress? I'm sure when it came down to it, a blanket decision had to be made, save as many humans, or make accommodations for the pets, and maybe save less people.
Not true. In the beginning man wasn't eating animals or using them as beasts of burden. Meat eating and using animals as beasts of burden and clothing is part of the sinful fall of mankind. That's not PETA talking points. It's right in the book of Genesis.
I, of course, mean from the Fall, of which Adam was an intimate part.
My words stand.
I've read through the comments and I don't think you quite understand that people do bond with their animal companions to the degree they're like family. There's nothing liberal about that. I've had my Sophie for ten years now and no way I could leave her behind to die. I am a christian too with those beliefs.
Cyborg, I do realize people have strong attachments to their pets.
I've said many times in this thread that I love my pets, too. By one's love for a pet cannot, in my Christian perspective, override the love we must have for our fellow man.
Please be sure to have read my posts. I think I've stated my case, and apparently yours too, well.
Okay well we disagree.
This would work.
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