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| Dog torn from crying child has been found |
| 2005-09-09 |
| Amid the heart-wrenching moments of devastation from deadly hurricane Katrina, there is at least one bright spot. Snowball, a small white dog taken by police from a sobbing little boy as he and his family were boarding a bus at the Superdome, has been located, USA Today reported Thursday. Snowball is now at the Louisiana SPCA in Gonzalez, La., and will be reunited with his owner, U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian Terry Conger told the newspaper. The Humane Society of the United States I find that a little hard to believe. My experience with the HSUS is that they are solely a political extremist group, like PETA, and don't actually help animals. They have nothing to do with the local humane shelters. and the Louisiana SPCA rescued 43 dogs and 16 cats from the Superdome and delivered them to a temporary shelter at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center. When the police took the dog during the Superdome evacuation, the boy cried "Snowball! Snowball!" until he vomited. At the time authorities said they didn't know where the boy or his dog ended up. The sad story of Snowball prompted an outpouring of emotion from pet lovers around the country who went on the hunt for the boy and his dog. One woman set up a reward offer to encourage the search for Snowball. On Thursday, the president of the Humane Society of Southeast Texas in Beaumont blasted officials for not doing enough to take care of the pets of hurricane victims. Wait a minute, there. Nobody loves animals more than I (well, that guy in Seattle does, I guess), but human beings come first. If Cami and some stranger fell into a wash, I know which I'd rescue first. That said, I question the intelligence of whoever wrote the order to ban all pets. Several people have stated that they stayed behind because they knew that the authorities would not let them take their pets. If you force people to leave their pets behind, some will take the chance and stay with them. In this case, that was a bad choice, but if the floodwall hadn't failed (just the hurricane damage), it would have been the better choice. |
| Posted by:Jackal |
| #5 Something that Ghandi said rings true: we can tell a lot about a society by how it treats animals (paraphrase). It's also my opinion that some people shouldn't be allowed to have pets. If you have time to evacuate by car, take the pet with you fer cryin' outloud. But if you do leave it behind, don't leave it in a cage sitting on top of the washer and dryer! |
| Posted by: Rafael 2005-09-09 19:34 |
| #4 I thought that was a bad policy too. For a lot of people, pets are really important. Besides, they tend to improve our sense of humanity--make us better people in a lot of cases. (favorite prayer: "Oh Lord, make me the person my dog thinks I am.") Anyway, I think it's so terrific that they found Snowball! It was a pathetic story, and I was cringing at the thought of the disruptions in family relationships, and attachment issues sure to surface in the aftermath. A little boy simply does not have the cognitive ability to manage that kind of loss. And did anyone see the video footage of the little dog trying to get into the bus after everyone was loaded? Ouch. A lot of domesticated animals are still in a bad situation now because of human incompetence (thank you, Gov. Blanco) and I hope anyone that can contribute to the pet-rescue effort will. Hey--and it's another thing that sets us apart from the terrorists. We LIKE dogs. (I don't trust anybody that doesn't like dogs . . . ) |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2005-09-09 16:47 |
| #3 Yeah, put people through additional torment because they can't take the pet. They lost pretty much everything, what's one more thing right? F**king idiots. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2005-09-09 12:57 |
| #2 I stand (well, sit) corrected, and "thank you" to your friend. I would still not contribute to the HSUS, because I fear the money is fungible. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-09-09 12:44 |
| #1 My experience with the HSUS is that they are solely a political extremist group, like PETA, and don't actually help animals. They have nothing to do with the local humane shelters. There are two components to HSUS. One is the advocacy group you mention but there is another part that does quite a bit for animal rescue efforts. I have a friend who has been on the scene at quite a few disasters rescuing pets. She is in NOLA right now. Like many organizations, there are the queen bees and the worker bees. |
| Posted by: Formerly Dan 2005-09-09 10:23 |