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Katrina Evacuees Distraught Over Pets
Associated Press Writer ^ | Sunday September 4, 2005 4:31 AM | By MIKE STOBBE

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.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: animalrescue; evacuate; inhumane; katrina; leavethembehind; pets
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To: krunkygirl

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.


61 posted on 09/04/2005 1:59:04 PM PDT by Caramelgal (My Tag Line is "Tag You're It")
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To: Fawn

i NEVER met an animal I didn't like--some that I have been afraid of--but they are all innocent creatures


62 posted on 09/04/2005 2:01:29 PM PDT by krunkygirl
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To: Xenalyte

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.


63 posted on 09/04/2005 2:06:05 PM PDT by meowmeow (Meow! Meow!)
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To: Dallas59; Fawn
Back to ya...

And back again at you, Alpha Hotel.

E.S. A sewer full.

64 posted on 09/04/2005 2:09:40 PM PDT by elbucko
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To: ConservativeMind
We are stewards of animals and have dominion over them. They must suffer for our good when necessary.

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?!

65 posted on 09/04/2005 2:36:31 PM PDT by elbucko
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To: Fawn
Noah's Wish is just one of many, but they are helping large and you can count on them. They'll be thrilled to get our donations, I'm certain, and maybe some of those unfortunate people will be reunited with their pets.
66 posted on 09/04/2005 2:42:28 PM PDT by Lady Jag (The Goat-Vendor of Hamelin, and Expounder of Troll Logic)
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To: publana
If they would like it redone professionally for free, freepermail me.

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

67 posted on 09/04/2005 2:47:54 PM PDT by Lady Jag (The Goat-Vendor of Hamelin, and Expounder of Troll Logic)
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To: elbucko
Elbucko, your reference to Numbers is worthless in this light. When you get a donkey who speaks the Word of God, then you may feel free to differ. Am I to assume you are equally against eating animals?

By the way, Numbers 22:39-40 further points to the inferiority of animals to people:

"Then Balaam went with Balak to Kiriath Huzoth. 40 Balak sacrificed cattle and sheep, and gave some to Balaam and the princes who were with him."

Numbers, nor God elsewhere in Scripture, never speaks to putting animals over people.
68 posted on 09/04/2005 3:23:59 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: ConservativeMind
Am I to assume you are equally against eating animals?

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.

69 posted on 09/04/2005 3:37:18 PM PDT by elbucko
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To: elbucko
I am not sure how my heart is the one hard within this discussion.

You are the one who is insisting on saving animals over humans.

Get real about your heart, "elbucko".
70 posted on 09/04/2005 3:45:51 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: ConservativeMind
You are the one who is insisting on saving animals over humans.

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.

71 posted on 09/04/2005 4:23:36 PM PDT by elbucko
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To: Xenalyte; ConservativeMind
Apologies for sounding harsh, but my animals - my babies - are more important to me than you are.

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.

72 posted on 09/04/2005 4:35:33 PM PDT by elbucko
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To: elbucko
The Almighty gave mankind the dominion over the creatures of creation, but that doesn't give us license for cruelty

I never said to be cruel to any animal. I've only said that a person's life is worth much more than that of an animal's. This includes yours over my own pet's life. When a rescuer comes with places for a pet or a fellow person in the boat, the rescuer must choose the person regardless. It is folly to suggest the animal over the human.

...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.

By what accounting or set of words from a prior post, "elbucko"? I am not aware of any such occasion of my words, although I'd be glad to be told them if you can find them. Go ahead, I promise I've not asked the Admin to erase anything. I have only said to directly save humans over any animal.

Well, just what would you be worth, besides judgement?!

I am worth the same as you, "elbucko". And if we all needed to be sin-free to ever speak what the Bible says, then no one could ever say anything, including that of any pastor. Get real.
73 posted on 09/04/2005 5:16:32 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: BykrBayb

We *gotta* hook this one up with the "Flag Lady".
[It's a match made in....uh...heaven?]...;))


74 posted on 09/04/2005 9:08:26 PM PDT by Salamander (Curiosity *may* have killed Schrödinger's cat ......)
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To: Salamander

Can the Cuckoo For Coco Puffs dance be done by two?


75 posted on 09/04/2005 9:10:51 PM PDT by BykrBayb (Impeach Judge Greer - In memory of Terri <strike>Schiavo</strike> Schindler - www.terrisfight.org)
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To: BykrBayb

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]...;)


76 posted on 09/04/2005 9:15:55 PM PDT by Salamander (Curiosity *may* have killed Schrödinger's cat ......)
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To: wizardoz

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.


77 posted on 09/04/2005 9:22:09 PM PDT by wimpycat (Hyperbole is the opiate of the activist wacko.)
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To: Salamander
Gotta love 'em]...;)

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.

78 posted on 09/04/2005 9:30:08 PM PDT by BykrBayb (Impeach Judge Greer - In memory of Terri <strike>Schiavo</strike> Schindler - www.terrisfight.org)
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To: BykrBayb
Boy, you'd have really "loved" my ex-father-in-law, then.

He thought the Amish were hellions compared to him...;)


79 posted on 09/04/2005 9:47:50 PM PDT by Salamander (Curiosity *may* have killed Schrödinger's cat ......)
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To: Salamander

Nice photo. Which one is your ex-father-in-law?

; )


80 posted on 09/04/2005 9:50:44 PM PDT by BykrBayb (Impeach Judge Greer - In memory of Terri <strike>Schiavo</strike> Schindler - www.terrisfight.org)
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