Sorry to bump this back up but I just get too worked up over the "rescue"

Just to set the record straight. Many of the residence were told to leave the animal behind since there was NO room at the evacuation center. One retired nurse who had no means of transportation was told by the National Guard that if she didn't leave voluntarily without her dog, they would forcibly remove her without her dog. Either way, she would be separated from her dog and she was.

So it wasn't like they wanted to abandon their animals. They were FORCED!! Others lost everything so when the rescue groups and organization said, check to see if your missing pet is listed on the web site. Well... and by the way, if you do not claim your animal within 5 days, we consider the animal abandoned. Never mind that even if you track down your pet month down the road, its not yours anymore. There were several cases of this highlighted in the video. Cesar Milan helped to track down several dogs and I think only one person got his animal back.

Majority of the people expect in cases of emergency that everything you have prior to natural disaster is going to be there afterwards. They are going to be in for a rude awakening. I occasionally see so called disaster preparedness training where all the emergency personnel are available. I think it would be far more realistic if on the day of the "training" the emergency crews do a straw drawing to see who is really going to be available then run the disaster training. See how well that goes... Also do a straw drawing to say what pieces of equipment are available. Radio, rescue equipment, generators...

What happens if your car is low on gas when the disaster hits, will you run out of gas? Haven't you parked your car in your drive way with "empty" gas tank? Don't count on the local gas station to be open. Don't count on local motels or hotels or even those within hours drive are going to have any vacancies or be even open. don't count on cell phone, grocery stores or any other things you need. Even restroom facility.

So when I hear people say things without taking into account of "disaster" situation, it just makes me angry.

Like Beth says, it was a miracle to move so many people out of the area in such short amount of time. Unfortunately the "miracle" didn't extend to the animals left behind. And no methodologies were in place to reunite the animals with the owners. If anything, it was set up to make sure that you and your animals were separated for good.

Another thing that really made me mad was comments made by some rescuers, "these poor people don't deserve to have animals. It's better for the pets to be adopted out to a better home?" Such arrogance!! Another one had a racist comment which I will not bother repeating here.

I'm done with this thread. Sorry for the rant but I just needed to get it off of me.

Peace to all,