UPDATE on Blue Dog Rescue

I don't mean to pick on or criticize the person who sent me the following email, but I'm responding to it here because it represents a good example of several of the problems now facing the reunification efforts:

1) Katrina animals are being adopted out before the December 31st deadline that was recommended by the ASPCA and HSUS.

2) Groups like Blue Dog (and many others - a list is being compiled) never posted FOUND reports on Petfinder or Petharbor so there was virtually no chance that the owners of these dogs would ever find their dogs.

3) Many small rescue groups, organizations and individuals went to New Orleans and "rescued" animals that have disappeared for any number of reasons, the main reason being that they removed animals from Louisiana without the jurisdiction to do so and often with no intention of trying to find the owners. One reason often given is that these animals will be better off in a nice, new home with nice, new owners than being returned to their previous owners who no doubt abused and neglected them in all sorts of ways, evident because they were not spayed or neutered and/or were left behind when their owners evacuated.

I can't wait until I have the time to publish the stories of all the abusive and neglectful pet owners with whom I've gotten to know during the last 10 weeks...the man who watched his daughter's dog run after the bus when he was ordered to remove the dog from the bus; everyone who left a few days worth of food and water for their cats because they expected to be back home in a few days; the man who paddled around in a canoe with his dog for five days, rescuing five other dogs and turning those dogs over to animal rescue volunteers only to be forced out of his canoe and ordered on to a bus and separated from his golden retriever companion; people who stayed behind until the water got so high that they had to evacuate and most of the time were not allowed to bring their pets.

There are stories of pets saving their owners lives and pets saving the lives of other pets. I am in no way advocating the return of abused dogs to their owners, but if Blue Dog Rescue was in New Orleans 20 days after Katrina (according to their website) then it would not be possible to determine anything about the dogs' lives prior to Katrina based on the condition they were in then.

I could go on and on and someday, when our work is finished reuniting pets with their people, their stories will be told.

On 11/10/05, xxxxxxxxx@aol.com wrote:

I live in Austin and Blue Dog Rescue is a legitimate dog rescue group that does fantastic work. I am not sure that the dogs you identified on your blog are actual Katrina dogs that they have rescued. I would check my sources before posting such claims.They also rescue many other dogs in the Austin area. Matter of fact..if you are going to post ridiculous comments about thier stories on their site why don't you call them up and get all your facts straight before cutting down a great group.

Lynn

Austin, Texas



Dear Lynn,
Thanks for your note. I have no doubt that Blue Dog is a legitimate rescue group and does fantastic work. I'm also sure that the type of rescue done by Blue Dog, as well as 99.9999% of every other rescue group in the country, is the normal, every day sort of rescue that we used to think of when we thought of animal rescue prior to 8/31/05 - not disaster rescue for which not even the large organizations were prepared. The comments on my blog were taken directly from the Blue Dog website where these dogs are listed as being Katrina rescues, and yes, I was making fun of the sappy, mellow-dramatic accounts of these dogs lives before Katrina.

So, if the dogs from Blue Dog Rescue that I posted on my blog were not really rescued from Katrina, then the website shouldn't state that they were; and if they were, then please explain what the problem is.

I'll go one step further here. If the Blue Dog dogs were truly strays or abused, neglected or unwanted and they are now posted on my blog, then there is no problem. But if these dogs were rescued, whether from a house or from outside, or from the Winn Dixie group that you mentioned, then they may have owners searching for them. Which makes it a good thing that they are on my blog. I don't know what to do with your statement that Blue Dog rescues many other dogs from Austin so I won't comment on that.

I encourage Blue Dog Rescue, a group reported to do an outstanding job in Austin, TX, to post photos of all 15 dogs rescued from Katrina. In fact, if you send the pictures to me, I'd be happy to do all the Petfinder listings for you if you don't have time.

Thanks again for your note.

Note to pet owners reading this: it seems as if some of the dogs they took from New Orleans may have come from the Gentilly area.