Posted on 09/10/2005 11:21:16 PM PDT by BagCamAddict
Thanks for sharing this. I am going to look into vaccines.
My priorities are in order, thank you. And didn't your mother teach you that if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all? If you don't like this thread, then stay off of it. SOME of us DO care about animals.
For people who have lost EVERYTHING, their pet may be all they have left, and their only source of comfort. To force them to abandon their pet after all the trauma they have gone through is additional unnecessary cruelty.
I would never leave my dog behind, but apparently most people who left their pets thought they would be back home in 2 days at the most. So they didn't "leave them for dead," they left them because hotels and shelters wouldn't take pets.
There wouldn't be so many dogs and cats in shelters in this country if so many people didn't think they were disposable!!
Homes are being volunteered in every state in this country to house these animal victims of Katrina, just like there are homes being volunteered to house the human victims. In Oregon alone, there are over 3000 foster homes registered to take Katrina pets.
And one other thing: Many HUMANS needed rescuing in the first place because they couldn't find hotels or shelters that would accept their pets when they wanted to evacuate. If hotels and shelters had allowed pets, the HUMAN rescue effort wouldn't have been so HUGE. I'm sure many humans died because they stayed behind because of their pets. Additionally, I'm sure some humans died because valuable rescue resources were spread too thin. Perhaps the 36 people from the nursing home could have been rescued if so much time wasn't spent rescuing humans who stayed behind to stay with their pets.
Animals that are not with their people are no longer pets...they need to be culled.
Declaring "it isn't a zero-sum game" doesn't make it so. If there are rescue workers in the AO looking for abandoned pets their efforts are misplaced.
HOTD...can you put this on the Doggie Ping List?
[and thanks for the link BCA]...:)
Now how much of your rationale is conjecture?
Citing 3000 homes in OREGON is fatuous. What kind of resources need to be expended to get 3000 LETTERS to Oregon from Louisiana?
For up to date info, check out BestFriends.org under special report. There are two threads like ours detailing what is going on in the parishes and phone numbers to call. BestFriends has it's own boats and has been rescuing pets for several days. They have been on Fox News-Neil Cavuto and Hannity & Colmes. They, along with many other groups have rounded up many pets.
Now, the problem is the LA state vet won't let the trucks and vans filled with pets go to the shelter in Gonzales because it is full AND won't allow the animals in that shelter go on to others waiting to accept them because of a 15 day quarantine law. There have been many phone calls to the Gov. office to cut the red tape and allow these pets to move to neighboring states who have shelters at the ready. They have received thousands of phone calls. BestFriends is also being contacted by evacuees with their addresses to ask them to rescue pets left behind.
Gen. Honoree has a number that can be called. This gentleman is assuring people that the military does not kill animals and that they are leaving food and water. From what others have been told, they might be cutting off all private rescues and only allowing state or military animal rescue. This is probably due to the water toxicity.
If you go to the BestFriends site, you can read the posts and the see all the conflicting information. Typical of what we've seen, nobody's quite sure of what they can do. On one hand, there was a huge appeal for flat bottomed boats by several national rescue groups. I don't know whether they will be allowed in anymore. I'm sure there is a concern for liability and disease.
Sorry for the long post. Can't seem to get that picture of the little boy having to leave his dog Snowball on the highway overpass and crying so hard he vomited. I guess we still don't know if the dog was rescued, but that child has and will have so much heartache to go through, it's just a shame his best friend couldn't be there to ease some of it.
You greatly underestimate the convictions of those who foster abused and abandoned animals.
Several months ago 21 Ibizan Hounds were taken from horrible conditions in NE.
Within weeks, these rare and difficult to place dogs all had either loving foster homes or permanent homes.
Most of the dogs were "problem dogs" due to the mistreatment and neglect they'd suffered.
Not a single foster care provider griped or gave up on them.
The dogs went to every region in the US, all of it paid by those who rescued and fostered/adopted them.
Kipling warned us not to underestimate the power of the dog.
Starving dogs will revert from their temporary "pack behavior" once fed.
The few exceptions to the problem may be the "trained" pit breeds.
Those dogs were doomed for life by their owners right from the start.
"If you don't like this thread, then stay off of it."
Sorry. No can do. When someone is wrong and advocates a costly and dangerous position, I feel obliged to inform them that they are misguided. Resources wasted on these now feral animals could be put to better use.
It's not their convictions I'm underestimating...
Thank you for the link. I have signed the petition. Just ignore the comments of the ‘shoot’em all’ crowd above. I grew up on a ranch and stood by when my father was forced to shoot farm animals that had been badly injured. My father was as tough as they come and an avid hunter, but it bothered him a great deal to kill an animal raise to trust humans. There is no sport in it.
I always prayed that I would never be called upon to shoot of an animal in my care, and that I would be strong enough to do so if the need arose.
I believe that you rescue humans before animals. However, in N.O., it is not, at this time, an either/or choice. Nearly all the humans have been rescued and door to door searches are being conducted by those trained to do that job.
So what is wrong with allowing animal rescuers to pick up the animals left behind? Nothing, IMO. And it is not like it is being done at taxpayer expense.
There are dozens and dozens of postings on petfinder by people who said the same thing. Then they needed to be rescued by helicopter. They were not allowed to take their pets with them.
If they had not been there in the first place, then the time spent rescuing them could have been spent rescuing someone else - perhaps someone infirm. That's not conjecture, that's fact. The only conjecture is that some people may have died because valuable rescue resources were spent rescuing healthy, able-bodied people who stayed behind BECAUSE of their pets. But it is not conjecture that some people died when they stayed behind due to their pets.
**(In my opinion, they should have taken their pets with them and slept in their cars if necessary, since they expected it would be 2 days at the most. But that's a separate topic altogether.)
And they're ALL paying to do it out of their OWN pockets, risking their own lives and wasting their own time so what's it to you?
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