Family Sues To Get Back Dog Lost In Katrina

[Melisinde]

I can understand what you are saying. I have kids and pets. I value them both. But if faced with the choice, my kids or my pets, it would be my kids first without question. I can always get another Great Dane, but not another son. And if faced with the decision, me or my kids, then yes I would perish with my kids.

Thank you, Sadie. You get what I'm trying to say. Apparently, I explain things horribly wrong. I usually end up explaining things poorly and make people mad at me, completely unintentionally. AS I DON'T HAVE KIDS, ALL I'M LEFT WITH IS MY PETS SO THEREFORE = PERISH WITH PETS. heh.

Everyone? Please to be friends? Olive branches all around? I don't wanna fight.

 

[SadieMae]

Guess this thread kinda started out blaming the first owners for not taking their pet with them. Heck, there were parents putting their kids on buses to get them to safety and staying behind. Then they had to find their kids. I would have done the same, get all the kids outta here first and I'll wait for the next bus. Like I said earlier, the whole Katrina thing was a major clusterf**k!

 

[Nova]

Thank you, Sadie. You get what I'm trying to say. Apparently, I explain things horribly wrong. I usually end up explaining things poorly and make people mad at me, completely unintentionally. AS I DON'T HAVE KIDS, ALL I'M LEFT WITH IS MY PETS SO THEREFORE = PERISH WITH PETS. heh.

Everyone? Please to be friends? Olive branches all around? I don't wanna fight.

Meli, I WAS agreeing with you. I feel exactly the same. I was just acknowledging that our feelings are hypothetical until (God forbid!) we are faced with a choice in reality.

 

[2luvmy]

I have mixed feeling about this. Maybe the dog is all this family has left aside from each other and getting the dog back would mean a lot.

If I lost everything and was able to get back on my feet, I would want my pups. However, if I adopted a Katrina pet and loved it for this long it would be hard to give it up.

 

[Amraann]

Wow, I'm really sorry. Apparently MY opinion about MY situation/circumstances/viewpoint is very offensive to people. I'm sorry what you and others have gone through. Truly, I am. I am telling you that if it were me, I would stay with my pets or take them with me. There is no way no matter what that I would leave my pets and save myself. I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision for people to make. I'm just saying I can tell you right now what MY decision would have been. Jeez, it's just my opinion.... Seriously, why can't I have it?

I don;t believe I was attacking your opinion or yourright to have one.
I was merely pointing out reasons of reality during an emergency situation that may require someone to leave a pet behind.

I think I kindly pointed out that your pets are lucky.

There is definately a double bladed sword around here lately.
If people do not recieve replies to their posts they say that they are thread killers etc.
But on the same token if someone replies and just discusses different views or outlines points that had not been mentioned people take it like an attack.
If people want to discuss topics then unless their is some cause why are replies seemingly defensive?

There was no reason to take the defensive to my post.
Until a few years ago I never had to evacuate nor would I have known all that goes into it.
That is all my post pointed out. There may be little intricacies that someone who has not had to evacuate would not consider.

People should not presume a sarcastic or attacking tone when reading a post.
Sometimes a reply is a reply and its merely a discussion of the topic not an attack.

 

[2sisters]

some good points have been posted here. I see another side to the issue so maybe I was hasty in my judgement. all I was thinking of is the "fortunate" people who could get in the car and go to motel 6 or to family. not the ones without that option. I ahve just heard so many terrible stories about people who had the means but left animals anyways and they died. 4 come to mind right now.

 

[Amraann]

some good points have been posted here. I see another side to the issue so maybe I was hasty in my judgement. all I was thinking of is the "fortunate" people who could get in the car and go to motel 6 or to family. not the ones without that option. I ahve just heard so many terrible stories about people who had the means but left animals anyways and they died. 4 come to mind right now.

Many families are not to keen on relatives showing up with pets either.

I am curious about your mention of those with the means but left their pets anyhow? I had not heard of any cases like that.

I think that just like every day life in any place there are those that protect their children and pets and those that don't and a million reasons for that.

 

[2sisters]

Many families are not to keen on relatives showing up with pets either.

I am curious about your mention of those with the means but left their pets anyhow? I had not heard of any cases like that.

I think that just like every day life in any place there are those that protect their children and pets and those that don't and a million reasons for that.

I mentioned one earlier about the dog in the carrier on the counter, a friends family left a mother cat with her kittens( the kittens could have been handled by humans) in their garage, closed in with no escape. and a couple other were similar, people just hauled butt and left the pets and the pets died. a friend of the family left her cat but it was taken by the human society afeter her landlord notified them. these are just personal stories, they weren't news stories or anything. my aunt actually found an abandoned puppy in harrison county in MS when she came home and he was badly hurt, his hind leg was broken and started to mend before we found him so there was no fixing it and he limps on it and the front paw was so badly mangled it had to be amputated, so it just hits a nerve with me ya know.

 

[Amraann]

I mentioned one earlier about the dog in the carrier on the counter, a friends family left a mother cat with her kittens( the kittens could have been handled by humans) in their garage, closed in with no escape. and a couple other were similar, people just hauled butt and left the pets and the pets died. a friend of the family left her cat but it was taken by the human society afeter her landlord notified them. these are just personal stories, they weren't news stories or anything. my aunt actually found an abandoned puppy in harrison county in MS when she came home and he was badly hurt, his hind leg was broken and started to mend before we found him so there was no fixing it and he limps on it and the front paw was so badly mangled it had to be amputated, so it just hits a nerve with me ya know.

And each of those stories are so sad.
I must have missed the dog left on the counter in the carrier.
What was the purpose of that?? Did they think it was safer that way??

 

[SadieMae]

I mentioned one earlier about the dog in the carrier on the counter, a friends family left a mother cat with her kittens( the kittens could have been handled by humans) in their garage, closed in with no escape. and a couple other were similar, people just hauled butt and left the pets and the pets died. a friend of the family left her cat but it was taken by the human society afeter her landlord notified them. these are just personal stories, they weren't news stories or anything. my aunt actually found an abandoned puppy in harrison county in MS when she came home and he was badly hurt, his hind leg was broken and started to mend before we found him so there was no fixing it and he limps on it and the front paw was so badly mangled it had to be amputated, so it just hits a nerve with me ya know.

Not only was there human suffering, but animals suffered also. It was a very sad situation all around. Back to the thread...if these people did not really love their dog, they could have easily just gotten another one. Meli...I think if you lost and then found one of your "kids" you would fight to get them back also. I just can't fault the original owners of the dog for wanting it back. The adoptive parents of the dog, if they truly love animals, knew where the dog came from and knows where it belongs. I could not keep a dog under those circumstances and would give it up. There is always another furbaby who needs a good home that has no one wanting it or looking for it.

 

[Becba]

Having evacuated many times for hurricanes I can say you have to leave long before they know where the storm is going to hit to even find a motel. You get stuck in traffic for 6 to 8 hrs just to get 30 miles down the road. You have to drive for 300 miles to find a room if you did not book days in advance. And sometimes you end up at a shelter because there are no motels left.

The shelters rarely take animals and the motels often don't either. I try to make arrangements for someone too check on my dogs and cats and leave plenty of food and water. Also we have a pet door so they can go in and out, hopefully to find the safest place. It has caused me a lot of worry and even kept me from evacuating because I could not figure out what to do with my pets. When it comes down to it I have made the choice to leave them and get myself and my children out. Some act as if you should not own a pet if you live in hurricane country.

 

[SadieMae]

Having evacuated many times for hurricanes I can say you have to leave long before they know where the storm is going to hit to even find a motel. You get stuck in traffic for 6 to 8 hrs just to get 30 miles down the road. You have to drive for 300 miles to find a room if you did not book days in advance. And sometimes you end up at a shelter because there are no motels left.

The shelters rarely take animals and the motels often don't either. I try to make arrangements for someone too check on my dogs and cats and leave plenty of food and water. Also we have a pet door so they can go in and out, hopefully to find the safest place. It has caused me a lot of worry and even kept me from evacuating because I could not figure out what to do with my pets. When it comes down to it I have made the choice to leave them and get myself and my children out. Some act as if you should not own a pet if you live in hurricane country.

I think that was my point, sometimes people just don't have the option of taking their animals with them no matter how if breaks their hearts to leave them behind. The Katrina fiasco was unexpected and those people were very unprepared for the disaster. Becca from your experience, it seems even if you have gone through it before, it's still a struggle to decide what to do with your pets. If something like that happened in Central Tx, I wouldn't know where to go that would take in my animals with me.

 

[Melisinde]

FWIW, I just got an e-mail seconds ago from the Humane Society that states President Bush has signed the PETS Act into Law. (PETS stands for Pet Evacuation and Transportation Standards) They have some detail on it here: http://www.hsus.org/legislation_laws/federal_legislation/companion_animals/2005_PETS_evacuation.html
I dunno... yay for the President finally doing something right? It looks like a lot of it gives the responsibility to FEMA for taking care of things and well, they don't have a great track record... but at least this is a step in the right direction? I dunno. I can't read through the bill too thoroughly right now as I've just spent the last 3 hours researching Supreme Court decisions challenging the U.S.C.'s murder statute.....

My brain = a bit fried right now.

 

[sleuthin4fun]

I am in the process of adopting a Chocolate Lab right now. Its owner was in the Reserves and has been called up and deployed to Iraq. It is costing me nearly $300 to adopt the animal with shots, spaying and heart worm testing. If this soldier comes home next year looking for his dog, it will break my heart but I wont deny him his pet.

tybee I agree with you I could not deny this family the right to have their dog back. I am sure that the adopting family had good intentios but, the dog has a family.

 

[SadieMae]

I think they did the right thing, and returned the dog to the original owner.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/08/katrina.dog.lawsuit.ap/index.html

Rocket, a dog that survived Hurricane Katrina and ended up in a Pennsylvania home, is back with its owner in New Orleans after a custody fight that went to court.
The suburban Philadelphia couple who adopted the chow-Finnish spitz mix returned the dog to previous owner Sheila Combs, lawyers for both sides said Wednesday.

Combs agreed to drop a lawsuit she filed last month against Lynne and Joseph Welsh and the kennels that handled the dog before the Welshes adopted him. The attorneys would not comment further on the settlement.

The Welshes took in the now 2-year-old dog a year ago and renamed him Rusty.

Similar animal custody battles have cropped up in states including Florida and Maryland over pets left behind during the August 29, 2005 storm and the mass evacuations afterward.

 

[OneLostGrl]

Everyone can call bs on me and maybe I'm just screwed up from life experiences but I can tell you one thing. I would not have left my animals no matter what. Even without having been in that situation personally, I can tell you without a doubt I would not have left my animals behind. (I'm not condemning anyone's decision; I'm just telling my thoughts.) My animals have never done a wrong thing to me ever and that's more than I can say for 100% of the human race I've come into contact with.

Maybe the judge should tell them that they will cut the dog in half and give each family half? *thinking of the biblical story* Find out who truly wants the dog that way... it worked in the Bible. Maybe even just let the families have a showdown and see what owner the dog goes to, honestly.

Melisinde,

I just wanted to take the time to share with you that my MIL feels the exact same way about her dogs!

She is 71 years old and the only child she has left living with her is my SIL who is 48 years old and mentally handicapped. Every time they have been evacuated (which is many many times between having lived in CT, FLA and SC) she stays with her pets while my FIL leaves with my SIL.

It is a choice she chooses to make as an adult. She and her husband discussed it many years ago and he respects her decision... it's her life and if she doesn't feel she can live without her dogs and would rather die with them, her husband would never stand in her way of doing that.

On another "I love my dogs" topic, A couple of years ago my in-laws bought brand new carpet for their home and one of her dogs "dug" a little hole in it within a week... my MIL simply slipped the sofa over it and said "It's not the dogs fault, it's mine, I shouldn't have bought new carpet."

My hubby always says his mother loves her dogs more then she loves him cuz if he had dropped a cigarette and burnt a little hole in the carpet she'd loose her mind! His other saying he uses is "Sadie could eat the tires off the Mini-van and mom would say "I shouldn't have parked it there!"
LOL!

 

[julianne]

I realize that motels/hotels don't normally accept pets, but if I had to evacuate, my pets would absolutely come with me because they are my responsibility and it's my duty to protect them from harm. If I had to, I would sneak them into the motel or hotel. If that wasn't possible, then they'd sleep a night or two in my vehicle. Sure, it would be cramped in my SUV with my animals, but they'd at least be alive. Just my opinion. Now, I don't live in hurricane country, but have had to evacuate once before and it was to a motel. I snuck them in & the motel staff were none the wiser. My kids didn't want to take any of their belongings, only their beloved pets. I'm not advocating breaking the rules, LOL, just saying that in dire situations, I have had to make decisions that resulted in breaking the rules. Everyone's different--I know there are people who aren't comfortable in breaking the rules....I'm not one of them LOL. :silenced: Ssssh, don't tell.

 

[LisainWV]

What amazes me, this family who possibly lost everything or alot of things in a hurricane has the money to pay a lawyer for a lawsuit over a dog?

Kudos to the family that adopted him for caring enough to do it in the first place and double kudos to them for giving him up when I'm sure they didn't want to. Let's just hope the hurricane family had the decency to say "thank you" and "we're sorry for everyone involved."

 

[LisainWV]

PS I know this has been beaten to death, but....

I'm an animal lover (like them better than people, honestly) and I would hate to be faced with this situation. I would do my best to take them with me, and, much like Amraan, I would look like a traveling zoo (bless your heart!!).

However, I can see situations where a pet could have been left behind due to circumstances. What if a family was out of town, had a friend or neighbor pet sitting, Katrina comes in. Your pet sitter is not likely to load up Rover or Kitty and take them along. What if some of these people felt their pets would be safe thru the storm and NO ONE anticipated the levies breaking. That's what caused the loss of life for so many. But, once the levies broke, I'm sure they couldn't get back in to get anything.

I saw the story where the handicapped man (in a wheel chair) stayed behind with his dog. Rescuers came thru later, got him out of a tree outside his window, his dog was up on the roof, and they refused to take the dog at that point. He was yelling for them to leave him there with his dog, but they took him. They showed him on a news show later (he did get reunited with his dog) and he was still mad as hell. Don't blame him. He stayed to be with his dog and then is forced to leave him behind.

 

[SadieMae]

What amazes me, this family who possibly lost everything or alot of things in a hurricane has the money to pay a lawyer for a lawsuit over a dog?

Kudos to the family that adopted him for caring enough to do it in the first place and double kudos to them for giving him up when I'm sure they didn't want to. Let's just hope the hurricane family had the decency to say "thank you" and "we're sorry for everyone involved."

Maybe the lawyer was doing this pro-bono. It doesn't say anywhere he was paid. Maybe they did have money to pay for the lawyer and it was worth it to spend it on getting their pet back. To that family apparently it was not just a dog. Some people will spare no expense when it comes to their pets. I'm sure the original owners are decent people, it wasn't their fault their dog got lost in the shuffle. The people adopting the dog were made aware this dog's original owners and the circumstances of the dog being lost. I think they should have had the decency to return it, without a lawsuit being filed. JMO.