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Animals Held Hostage -- 6 months later (Blog is below and continue in comments)
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Scroll all the way down if you want to move forward from the day of Katrina. Remember the average Post has 50 "comments" from other people. Much of the great data is in the "comments" from others and all you do is click "comments" to see what others had to say for each post.
My Own Favorite Stuff On this Blog:
1. My own favorite Post:
Click here2. Best rescue video footage:
Click here3. This blog has the BEST PICTURES so far of Katrina Animals. It is all pics and good ones
Click here 4. This is the coolest dog ever
Click for The Coolest Dog Ever.5. Most amazing photography: I mean must see:
Click here6. To reunite pets with owners:
Click here7. Watch a Pitbull video
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Animals Held Hostage -- 6 months later To save space this post continues in the "comments"
Here is a guest blog from Marilyn Knapp Litt, a Stealth Volunteer in San Antonio. Stealth is an ad hoc group of volunteers http://www.stealthvolunteers.com that has reunited over 1,000 families with their loved ones. Most of these animals were “lost in the system after leaving Lamar Dixon.” These cases are current as of March 7, 2006. She is seeking probono lawyers in every state. Please email her if you can help: marilyn@marilylitt.com
“Rescues without Reunions Bring Evacuees Despair”These are just samples of the dozens of cases of shelters and people that refuse to return known pets to owners.
Case 1: An 67 year old man still waits to be reunited with his elderly cat. He located it in October. It was "rescued" by someone who kept the animals he took from Lamar. Why? Because the residents of New Orleans are "bad owners." This gentleman likely won’t live to see his cat again; tonight he went to the hospital with chest pains and stress related problems. At 67, you know what is important. That is why he grieves for his cat and not for his lost home or his lost city.
Case 2: Ransom: Another foster agrees with this assessment but is willing to look the other way if a “bad” owner will pay all the bills for his dog’s care. Never mind the owner cried with relief to find out his dog survived. Dog for ransom?
Case 3: (too many to name) I could list some of the best known shelters in the country. Their staff all have reasons not to return the animals in their care. A foster told me no one in the South should be allowed to have an animal. But then how do I reconcile that with the California shelter withholding a dog because it is too cold in Ohio? Or the many that demand the owners travel to their state?
Or the dozens that take the pictures off their website two hours after the owner calls. Or the few that took tags off animals?
Case 4: Should a two tour Iraqi vet consider his little dog as just part of his sacrifice, along with his New Orleans home? If he had cared about his dog, he would have taken it to Iraq! I am sure the military would have let him; after all they took so many animals from owners boarding busses. I even heard a rumor they went to Lamar and cherry picked some Rottweilers and German Shepherds for training. So rest easy all you people looking for Rottis, your dogs are serving your country!
Case 5: Then there is the Louisiana shelter that “fired” a volunteer for facilitating reunions. I have no idea what they did with the dogs they took, except for some desirable dogs that went home with one of the staff. I guess if you work at the pound, your friends get animals for Christmas!
SEE CASES #6-13 in the Comments.These are but a smidgeon of the open cases. We now know of over 800 different locations that these dogs ended up at. None of these animals were rescued. They were taken. Had they been rescued, they would have been restored to grateful families. As it is, if they are not euthanized, they will be adopted out locally, leaving one less home for a local animal that will now be put to sleep. In the meantime, the heartbroken families of New Orleans will go without. Thank god for reunion volunteers who are helping some of these pet owners wrestle them back.
What is next on Erics Dog Blog:
CHECK BACK IN A FEW DAYS ON POSTS ABOUT MY NOAH'S WISH TRAINING
AND ABOUT WHAT STEALTH VOLUNTEERS HAVE DONE TO RECLAIM ANIMALS.
I leave you with my own "in-family training."
This is my nephew practicing approaching "agressive animals" and showing you how we clean crates around our place (no more bending and kneeling).
