He thought the Amish were hellions compared to him...;)
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.
Thanks. I saw this after I posted and am intending to make my second donation to them. I have concerns about most animal organizations even the Humane Society because of their political aims. Thanks for the info.
i NEVER met an animal I didn't like--some that I have been afraid of--but they are all innocent creatures
We live just off the DC Beltway and I keep 3 evac-packs, 1 for me, 1 for DH and one for kitty. The gas tank is kept full and our emergency destination is to get away from the rest of the population - no shelters.
And back again at you, Alpha Hotel.
E.S. A sewer full.
The Almighty gave mankind the dominion over the creatures of creation, but that doesn't give us license for cruelty. Try reading "Balaam's Donkey", Numbers, Ch-22.
Rescue in a disaster is not a zero sum game, it is a game of priorities, but you have reduced it to one of "worthiness". Truthfully, if I had the choice of saving the thoroughbred, "Secretariat", were he still alive and yourself, by your own accounting I would be correct to loosen my grip upon your hand and let you slip into the void and save the horse. The horses worth would save many lives and buy food and medicine. You, on the other hand would be worth.......? Well, just what would you be worth, besides judgement?!
Why not make the offer and refer them to some of your work? I have no affiliation with Noah's. All I did was donate. About HTML I know this much: º
As usual, you assume wrong. I have no objection to eating animals. AAMF, I hunt deer and elk as often as I can and I tend cattle at a friends ranch when on vacation. We often butcher a steer for a BBQ. My reference to Ballam's Donkey is to imply that you are the type of person that would not heed any notion except your own, even if it was God's word coming from the mouth of a donkey. You only know your own council. Your heart is hard and your mind is closed.
Oh no I'm not. You're the one who was setting the rules of priories, I gave you an example that followed those rules and it was not to your liking. You are the one who is absolutist. You do not think that the persons doing the rescues should be able to use their judgement.
Get real about your heart, "elbucko".
Oh I am, and that is one reason why I don't hide my emotional side behind the political label of conservative, as some do. I am only politically conservative, not emotionally bereft. I don't use my politics to justify being hard, judgmental or downright mean. So take the log out of your own eye before you try to remove the sliver from mine.
Don't apologies for sounding harsh, your response was the intent of "ConseravtiveMind's" post and he got off on it. On any animal thread there are always those who show up spouting either the obvious, as in this situation, or the "Law of the Jungle". They're not really telling us something that we don't already know, they are telling us something about themselves. That is, under certain situations, that they are not worth saving.
We *gotta* hook this one up with the "Flag Lady".
[It's a match made in....uh...heaven?]...;))
Can the Cuckoo For Coco Puffs dance be done by two?
Mais oui!
Ze French call it "Ze Cuckoo Pas De Deux"....:)
[I suspect the poster either simply dislikes animals *or* is fulfilling some "holier than thou art" quota tonight. "Legalists". Gotta love 'em]...;)
I feel exactly the same way about my one cat.
The abandoned cats might end up faring better than the dogs, if only they can find a clean water source. Cats can climb trees and houses.
No, I gotta love my husband. (I took a vow. Besides, he makes it easy.) I ain't gotta love anybody who tries to pass their hateful anti-Christian rhetoric off as universally accepted Christian doctrine.
I would, however, love to see zat Cuckoo Pas De Deux.
He thought the Amish were hellions compared to him...;)
Nice photo. Which one is your ex-father-in-law?
; )
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