The recent hurricanes caused millions of people to evacuate, but it’s a shame that some people had to leave their pets behind without any further help or assistance in the middle of a catastrophe. Some pets were even chained up and didn’t have any chance of escaping.
Hurricane Irma had just passed Florida when police officers spotted a couple of dogs in Lakeland. The canines were trapped in an outdoor kennel with no means of escape and no sign of their owner.
The owner most likely escaped the storm and left the pets behind in a haste to evacuate.
The outdoor kennel was almost completely flooded and water levels were still rising. Normally, animal control and police officers in the area are required to wait 24 hours by protocol before they could intervene, but since more rainfall was coming, these officers not only broke the dogs out – they broke protocol as well. Some rules simply don’t apply in life or death situations as these, and all of the dogs were rescued and made it out safely.
If the rescuers didn’t intervene, the kennel would surely have flooded and with no chance of escape, it’s clear that these dogs were left behind to die.
Luckily, the officers knew that lives were at stake – especially since the water wasn’t the only imminent threat to the dogs.
Someone noticed that islands full of fire ants were floating around, which could have posed an even more significant threat to the pups. The police officers also presumed that the dogs hadn’t eaten since the evacuations in Florida started.
Director Dianne Sauve of Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control said that more than 40 dogs were rescued out of dire situations before the storm even made landfall.
“There is absolutely no excuse for doing that,” she said about people who left their dogs behind. “These are things that are not unexpected during a situation like this. It’s always disappointing. Our goal is to keep pets and people together.”
The director also assured that legal steps would be taken against people who purposely abandoned their pets their pets before or while the storm occurred. They will be facing animal cruelty charges if enough evidence is found.
WFLA News Channel 8 was able to capture footage of the dogs in the outdoor kennel, and one viewer even drove fifteen miles to help after seeing a previous coverage of the animals in need of assistance. He brought plenty of food and water for the five dogs. They were rescued one by one and are now all doing well.
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