Dog News

So Many Pets Survived Hurricane Matthew Because Shelters Took in Their Whole Families

by Melanie

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10-11-16-hurricane-shelters-accept-pets1This pup rests comfortably in a shelter with his or her family.

 

Many pet owners unable to completely evacuate an area are faced with a difficult decision when a storm is bearing down on them:  save their own lives but leave their pets behind, or risk death by staying with their pets?  Most of us know that our animals are family members and we would NEVER leave them, no matter the consequence to ourselves, but thankfully fewer people had to make that choice because of shelters who were taking people and their pets.

 

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Little One, a Min Pin, has certainly ridden out a storm or two in the ten years she’s been alive, but they’re never easy, and Hurricane Matthew was a real doozy.

“She is scared of loud noises and lightning and I am too,” mom Marie Griffin told the Miami Herald.  “I am handicapped and I don’t know which way this storm is going to go. I would not have been able to get out of my trailer or take Little One with me. We do everything together so we are here together.”

 

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They were at Millenium Middle School in Tamarac, Florida.  Over 50 dogs, cats, and birds were safe and sound with their families as the storm battered the region.  The shelter can actually accommodate many more than that – up to 350 animals and 500 people!

“We live in a mobile home so we made the decision to come here,” Addison Chi said. “We could bring Maisie and it’s the safest thing go do.”

 

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