Katrina Evacuees Distraught Over Pets

[fireworksinjuly]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050903/...s/katrina_pets
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA - 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.

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."

Valerie Bennett left her dogs with an anesthesiologist who was taking care of about 30 staff members' pets on the roof of the hospital, Lindy Boggs Medical Center.

The 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.

But the anesthesiologist, a cat owner, promised to care for the other pets.

"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.

The Bennetts had four animals, including their two beloved dogs — Lorne's English springer spaniel, Oreo, and Valerie's miniature dachshund, Lady.

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.

Patients were evacuated starting Monday by rescue workers using small boats to traverse the floodwaters surrounding the hospital. On Wednesday night, the Bennetts were told they had to go, too.

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.

They handed the dogs to the anesthesiologist. Valerie got his last name but no cell phone number. "I wasn't thinking," she said.

But on Saturday afternoon, Valerie Bennett said she saw a posting on a Web site called petfinder.com that said the anesthesiologist was still at Lindy Boggs caring for the animals.

[Kelly]

That is SO sad. I can't imagine leaving my pets. It would break my heart. They must have been so scared.

I guess I'd let the dogs and cats out and hope for the best, hope they could swim to safety.

I have no idea what I'd do with the birds, rats and turtles.

I am gonna cry just thinking about it.

[flyndog]

When a kid has lost everything, having his dog taken away as well is so heart-wrenching. God bless the Dr. who was still trying to care for the dogs as long as he could.

[jackrusselllover]

I own two dogs myself and I can not imagine leaving them. I feel so bad for these people and their pets. Animal lovers need to come together and demand that more be done to help those animals left behind. I know many animal groups are accepting donations and I think if people can they should give money to help. I know I already have.

Sometimes people just don't realize how much a pet means to another person.

[bigdoglover]

I myself have donated to shelters accepting pets from the hurricane. I asked my husband what he would do in that situation....he had no reply, and we were both very quiet for a long time. I really don't think I could leave my dogs behind.

[ayl]

My son and my husband are 2 adult. They can look after themselves,
but my dogs can't.
No, I won't leave them, I stay with my dogs !

[Leto86]

-wipes eyes-

They would have to take me at gunpoint before leaving my pupper and kitties. I would rather die then not knowing what will happen to them, whether they starve to death, die from dehydration or the chemicals in the waters. Those animals did nothing to diserve this. I wish so badly that I could go down and help with the animal help, but there is no possible way for me to get down there. It brings ters to my eyes, thinking how many poor helpless animals are suffereing, or have already suffered.

[rmci]

Reports are coming out that Snowball may have been found
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9255741/

[sundobe]

I was watching Oprah (Tues, I think) they had the anesthesiologist on there. They helped rescue him and all the animals, and get them to safety.