When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees broke, many who were forced to leave without their pets endured long searches to find animals that had been ferried to safety without them. You'd think that finding that their pets were alive and well after the storm would be pure joy, but for some, it was more complicated.
The documentary "Mine," released Friday, tells the stories of people who found their pets in new homes, with rescuers or adopters who didn't want to give them back.
Read the rest of Linda Lombardi's article in The Canadian Press...
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OK, I wholeheartedly agree that we need to change the way that pet custody is viewed and decided in our legal system. I'm also glad that these cases are going to serve as precedent for future pet custody disputes. But as far as I'm concerned, if you left your pet in New Orleans, you don't deserve to have them back. I don't care what calamities are about to befall me, I am bringing my pets with me. A nuclear bomb could come tomorrow, and I would shove my cats into a carrier, get THEIR emergency supply bag out of the closet (pet food, medications, etc.) and start walking away from the blast. If these people chose to abandon their animals, they don't get to take them back from loving owners who cared enough to adopt them in the aftermath of that disaster.
Most of these people were not allowed to bring their pets with them to shelters. The people with money that could afford a car and stay at a hotel that allowed animals didn't have to leave their pets behind. My neighbor forced her mother to leave her cat behind when she evacuated. The cat managed to survive in the flooded apartment until she allowed to go back to New Orleans. Their were people who stayed in flooded homes because the rescuers refused to let them bring their pets with them. These people lost everything then find out their pet did survive to be told you can't have it back.
Our current Governor made sure things were different during the last big storm. They set up the train and some buses that allowed pets and shelters for them next to their owners.
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