Killing dogs in New Orleans

Rumours have been floating around for the last week, but they always turned out to be rumours.  This time it’s true: at least one police officer is shooting dogs in New Orleans.  On video!  In front of people!  And he’s acting like it’s just another day at the office.  I don’t expect you to watch the video unless you have doubts, but if you do watch it, you’ll remember it.

And this was today’s update from Best Friends, which I hope they won’t mind me reposting as I think the message is so important:

Time running out for our boat in St Bernard Parish

September 9, 2005 : 1:14 PM ET

From Paul Berry: We had two teams out on boats on Thursday. Troy Snow has written about his crew in an earlier posting. Ours was similar, so I’ll keep this brief.  Our team was me and Dr. Debbie Rykoff DVM. Also aboard and helping out was a crew from the Salt Lake Tribune. Leah Hogsten took photos for the Trib and gave these to us. (Thanks, Leah.)

The thing I want to say is simply that there are thousands upon thousands of animals stuck out here, on car roofs, on porches, cats on roofs of houses. We saw no other animal rescue orgs anywhere. I know they’re all doing good work on the peripheries … but, oh man … you see and hear these fluff pieces on TV of people being reunited with their pets, and you look around out here on the boats at this vast, endless wasteland of toxic water and animals hanging on, 11 days after the hurricane, and their time is running out.

The only other boat we saw yesterday was an airboat from Fish & Game. They were scouting the ground behind. Rumors are they’re beginning to shoot the animals today. I believe these stories are now true. That’s what’s going to be happening.

These animals only have days at most, and are clinging to life. They are the forgotten ones. They’re emaciated, starved, dehydrated. Literally “water water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” Dr. Debbie revives them in the boat as they start to lose consciousness. Gives them fluids. All those we took yesterday have survived.

If you’ve considered donating but haven’t, now’s the time to pony up.  And if you’ve wondered if a letter to a Governor or a mayor or a TV station or any other public official would make a difference, now is the time to find out.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/09 at 06:58 PM

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  1. When I read about that jackhole police officer on Flippy’s blog, it left me outraged.  Reading about it here, has left me heartbroken.

    I thought that it was just one asshat who needed a severe butt kicking, but now I am concerned that this is actually the policy down there.  How can this be?  I wish that I could just scoop all of those animals up and carry them to safety.

    It is just too horrific for words.

    Posted by Expat  on  09/14  at  05:26 AM
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