Last night I woke up and put on the news to go back to sleep. I was overwhelmed by the pictures of the animals left behind in New Orleans. When I saw the german shepherd stuck in the water in his fenced in yard trying desperately to climb onto a window ledge I lost it. It made me so sad and angry.
People had to make terrible choices, and I don't blame them-- get on the bus but you can't bring your pet. Here's a shelter you can come to, but you can't bring a pet. How could they (You know the asshats running the shelters) have these rules? I understand some people are allergic, and too many animals can result in issues, but shelters need to have a system set up with local vets and other groups to house and take care of pets.
I have always believed that when you take in an animal and remove from it its natural and wild state you MUST take on that responsibility for the rest of that animal's life because you have removed his ability to function as a wild creature. The dogs howling on the rooftops, having no real idea how to survive, were just so awful to see. They were clinging to their rescuers- I saw one golden, all 80 pounds of him, his paws tightly wrapped around the rescuer's neck--just hugging her.
I've always heard, "A society should be judged by how it treats the least of its members"- and we have a bureaucratic and social failure here as a society when people were forced to leave their pets behind. This failure is further proof/evidence of the attitude that resulted in the terrible humanitarian crisis those sheltering in New Orleans faced last week.
I am so glad the humane society is down there rescuing pets door to door and housing them until their owners can come claim them. They have over three hundred people on the ground pulling in pets. My hat goes off to them.
Oh, and ohhh, its all going to be better now that the head of FEMA has been removed...in the middle of the crisis....isn't that like locking the barn door after the horse is out?
On another good note- my friend who works at the NO zoo said they finally had food in and they were rotating crews in and out to care for the animals there. Almost all of the animals survived and are doing well.
Have a great weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment