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Sad Story of Superdome Boy and His Dog Grips Nation
Sad Story of Boy and His Dog Grips Nation
- By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
(09-06) 05:49 PDT New Orleans (AP) --
Among the thousands of crushing moments from last week's deadly hurricane, one image brought the anguish home to many: a tearful little boy torn from his dog while being shuttled to safety.
It tugged at the heartstrings, prompting an outpouring from around the country of people on the hunt for both the boy and his dog Snowball in hopes of a reunion.
They've been scouring shelters, posting notes on the Internet and making phone calls to track them down. One woman set up a Web site to help people pair up pets with their owners. Another set up a reward to encourage someone to come forward with information on Snowball's or the boy's whereabouts.
"Everyone wants to know about Snowball," said Laura Maloney, executive director of the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The boy was among the thousands sheltered at the Superdome after the hurricane. But when he went to board a bus to be evacuated to Houston, a police officer took the dog away. The boy cried out — "Snowball! Snowball!" — then vomited in distress. The confrontation was first reported by The Associated Press. Authorities say they don't know where the boy or his family ended up.
It was almost too much for Jean Jones to bear.
The 56-year-old woman from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., runs puppymillrescue.com and launched another site, katrinafoundpets.com, to help pair Snowball and other lost pets with their owners. She also started a reward fund — which hit $1,775 as of Monday — hoping money might persuade people to help out.
Billie Sue Bruce, a 65-year-old retired teacher in Jonesville, Va., was the first to donate, giving $500. "The child has been through so much already," she said. "Then to just add to this emotional state is unforgivable."
Late Monday, there was a ray of hope. The United Animal Nations said Snowball was safe, citing news from the state veterinarian's office. However, the information could not be immediately verified. To complicate matters further, the group called Snowball a terrier mix, while others consider the dog a bichon frise.
If the boy and his dog are indeed safe, they have beaten long odds.
Many of the animals — dogs, cats, ferrets and birds — that police collected at the Superdome were herded into a stairwell until the human evacuation was complete. Of the 50 animals rescued from the Superdome on Sunday, not all of them survived.
In Texas, refugees unable to care for their dogs and cats are handing them over to animal shelters already crowded with animals evacuated before the hurricane.
At the Humane Society of North Texas in Fort Worth on Monday, Antoinette Simmons and Wilson Clark dropped off their 7-year-old shi tzu. Staying in a Fort Worth hotel, the couple is unsure when they will be able to take Princess back home.
More than 600 displaced pets remain in Houston. Hundreds more fill kennels and cages in Dallas and around the state. Shelters try to arrange foster homes for pets, and many families have volunteered.
"I've been doing this type of work for 26 years and I've never seen this type of outpouring," said SPCA of Texas president James Bias, who shuttled 30 cats in his van from Houston to Dallas last week.
In Mississippi, many pets were either left to fend for themselves in the powerful winds or trapped in flooding cages as owners fled. Others survived, only to die after days without food and water.
Seventeen dogs and six cats died at the Humane Society of South Mississippi shelter in Gulfport. About 125 survived, many of them dog-paddling for hours until the mix of mud and sewage receded.
The national Humane Society chapter came in Friday and retrieved the survivors, trucking them to shelters further north, said Julie Parks, the assistant director of the Gulfport facility.
"We had dogs that swam the entire time in 4 feet of water and survived," said Parks. "Even cats were in about 8 to 9 inches of water in the upper cages and they swam and survived, too. Just like everybody else, they're survivors."
Reuniting Snowball and his owner will require work, patience and luck.
Volunteers planned to make visits to shelters in the Houston area looking for the dog's owners. They were considering walking around carrying signs with Snowball's photo.
"I don't know how hopeful I am," Jones said. "They probably don't know anything about this — that there's a reward out there and we're trying to look for them."
____
Associated Press writers Paul J. Weber in Dallas and Brian Skoloff in Waveland, Miss., contributed to this report.
___
Pet Finder: http://www.petfinder.com
Pet site: http://katrinafoundpets.com
Humane Society of the United States: http://www.hsus.org
Noah's Wish (rescue group):
http://www.noahswish.org
- By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
(09-06) 05:49 PDT New Orleans (AP) --
Among the thousands of crushing moments from last week's deadly hurricane, one image brought the anguish home to many: a tearful little boy torn from his dog while being shuttled to safety.
It tugged at the heartstrings, prompting an outpouring from around the country of people on the hunt for both the boy and his dog Snowball in hopes of a reunion.
They've been scouring shelters, posting notes on the Internet and making phone calls to track them down. One woman set up a Web site to help people pair up pets with their owners. Another set up a reward to encourage someone to come forward with information on Snowball's or the boy's whereabouts.
"Everyone wants to know about Snowball," said Laura Maloney, executive director of the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The boy was among the thousands sheltered at the Superdome after the hurricane. But when he went to board a bus to be evacuated to Houston, a police officer took the dog away. The boy cried out — "Snowball! Snowball!" — then vomited in distress. The confrontation was first reported by The Associated Press. Authorities say they don't know where the boy or his family ended up.
It was almost too much for Jean Jones to bear.
The 56-year-old woman from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., runs puppymillrescue.com and launched another site, katrinafoundpets.com, to help pair Snowball and other lost pets with their owners. She also started a reward fund — which hit $1,775 as of Monday — hoping money might persuade people to help out.
Billie Sue Bruce, a 65-year-old retired teacher in Jonesville, Va., was the first to donate, giving $500. "The child has been through so much already," she said. "Then to just add to this emotional state is unforgivable."
Late Monday, there was a ray of hope. The United Animal Nations said Snowball was safe, citing news from the state veterinarian's office. However, the information could not be immediately verified. To complicate matters further, the group called Snowball a terrier mix, while others consider the dog a bichon frise.
If the boy and his dog are indeed safe, they have beaten long odds.
Many of the animals — dogs, cats, ferrets and birds — that police collected at the Superdome were herded into a stairwell until the human evacuation was complete. Of the 50 animals rescued from the Superdome on Sunday, not all of them survived.
In Texas, refugees unable to care for their dogs and cats are handing them over to animal shelters already crowded with animals evacuated before the hurricane.
At the Humane Society of North Texas in Fort Worth on Monday, Antoinette Simmons and Wilson Clark dropped off their 7-year-old shi tzu. Staying in a Fort Worth hotel, the couple is unsure when they will be able to take Princess back home.
More than 600 displaced pets remain in Houston. Hundreds more fill kennels and cages in Dallas and around the state. Shelters try to arrange foster homes for pets, and many families have volunteered.
"I've been doing this type of work for 26 years and I've never seen this type of outpouring," said SPCA of Texas president James Bias, who shuttled 30 cats in his van from Houston to Dallas last week.
In Mississippi, many pets were either left to fend for themselves in the powerful winds or trapped in flooding cages as owners fled. Others survived, only to die after days without food and water.
Seventeen dogs and six cats died at the Humane Society of South Mississippi shelter in Gulfport. About 125 survived, many of them dog-paddling for hours until the mix of mud and sewage receded.
The national Humane Society chapter came in Friday and retrieved the survivors, trucking them to shelters further north, said Julie Parks, the assistant director of the Gulfport facility.
"We had dogs that swam the entire time in 4 feet of water and survived," said Parks. "Even cats were in about 8 to 9 inches of water in the upper cages and they swam and survived, too. Just like everybody else, they're survivors."
Reuniting Snowball and his owner will require work, patience and luck.
Volunteers planned to make visits to shelters in the Houston area looking for the dog's owners. They were considering walking around carrying signs with Snowball's photo.
"I don't know how hopeful I am," Jones said. "They probably don't know anything about this — that there's a reward out there and we're trying to look for them."
____
Associated Press writers Paul J. Weber in Dallas and Brian Skoloff in Waveland, Miss., contributed to this report.
___
Pet Finder: http://www.petfinder.com
Pet site: http://katrinafoundpets.com
Humane Society of the United States: http://www.hsus.org
Noah's Wish (rescue group):
http://www.noahswish.org
For more information:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file...
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Dog taken from sobbing boy at Superdome located, newspaper reports
Updated: 3:07 p.m. ET Sept. 8, 2005
Amid the heart-wrenching moments of devastation from deadly hurricane Katrina, there is at least one bright spot. Snowball, a small white dog taken by police from a sobbing little boy as he and his family were boarding a bus at the Superdome, has been located, USA Today reported Thursday.
Snowball is now at the Louisiana SPCA in Gonzalez, La., and will be reunited with his owner, U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian Terry Conger told the newspaper. The Humane Society of the United States and the Louisiana SPCA rescued 43 dogs and 16 cats from the Superdome and delivered them to a temporary shelter at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center.
The dog is reported to be among an estimated 3,000 animals brought into the Louisiana shelter system.
When the police took the dog during the Superdome evacuation, the boy cried "Snowball! Snowball!" until he vomited. At the time authorities said they didn't know where the boy or his dog ended up.
The sad story of Snowball prompted an outpouring of emotion from pet lovers around the country who went on the hunt for the boy and his dog. One woman set up a reward offer to encourage the search for Snowball.
The story was first reported by The Associated Press.
Late Monday, there was a ray of hope when the United Animal Nations said Snowball was safe, citing news from the state veterinarian’s office. However, the information could not be verified because there was some confusion over whether Snowball was a terrier mix, a poodle or a bichon frise.
On Thursday, the president of the Humane Society of Southeast Texas in Beaumont blasted officials for not doing enough to take care of the pets of hurricane victims.
The organization is offering to temporarily take care of the pets while the evacuees find a new home, said Cindy Meyers, board president of the group.
It’s important that animals are taken care of in evacuations, Meyers said, adding that it’s “inexcusable” that pets are being separated from their owners.
"Pets are family members and they need to be cared for just as the people do," she said.
Media reports have mentioned that there was a lot of 'road kill' in the areas where humans were allowed to board the busses that would take them to safety. A number of photographs - including one of Snowball - show pets chasing the vehicles in which their persons were driven away.