Thursday, September 08, 2005

1 down, 49,999 to go

Snowball, the little white dog yanked from a screaming little boy and not allowed to evacuate, has been found, alive and well. As good as that news is, an estimated 50,000 companion and farm animals' hours are numbered--thousands have already died--unless rescuers evacute them from their houses. Animal welfare and rescue agencies are ready to house them and re-unite them with their humans when possible, but someone has to get them out first.

Many of the pets were left behind because rescue agencies refused to evacuate them, a decision many of us find unbelievably obscene. Many, however, were left behind because their humans thought they would be returning "in a few days." Many people evacuated when Katrina was a Category 5 storm, expected to make a direct hit on New Orleans. A few days?? And even those who evacuated when the storm had become a Cateogory 4 and had veered slightly to the east must have been smoking something powerfully strange to think they would be returning home in "a few days." This is something that completely baffles me.

Now is the time to publicize our outrage that the federal government is leaving thousands of creatures to die of dehydration, starvation, and disease. Countless have already drowned. What the hell kind of culture is this, anyway?

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