Guest article by
Jane McGregor, Associate Broker
Five Star Real Estate Leaders
CONTACT HER AT:
soldbyjanemcg@gmail.com
On August 29th 2017, I was overwhelmed with grief, compassion, sympathy and a desire to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Facebook and the news channels were filled with horrifying stories of the abandoned house pets in deplorable conditions that were trying to survive. My dream has always been to go to the disaster sites, set up camp and rescue the left behind pets and reunite them with their owners.. Houston has a well known pet overpopulation problem with up to 1 million strays on the streets. Some say this statistic is exaggerated, but even if it is 100,000 homeless pets - that is 100,000 too many.
Texas is also a kill state with many of its shelters having to euthanize after a stray pet has been there 3 days! We, at Noah Project had a hard time wrapping our heads around that. Our homeless pets will stay with us indefinitely and euthanasia is only an option if there is no quality of life due to severe health or severe behavioral problems. Some of our pets are with us for years until they find the perfect home.
To rent a van, take volunteers and take a week off from our jobs was not feasible as a plan to help. We had to come up with a way to assist from home. The Red Cross and Emergency Rescue groups were urging people to stay home and leave rescue efforts to the professionals.
We had an idea! On August 30th we decided to contact the southern shelters and ask if we could take their existing pet inventory (those pets that had been in their shelter pre storm) so that they could make room for the storm victims. We felt that this would be the best way to assist the pets without physically going down there. Via Facebook, I began posting our offer of help in every shelter/rescue site that was asking for help. “Noah Project a No kill Pet Shelter in Muskegon Michigan available to take your existing kennel inventory. Pets must be pre-storm and must pass Michigan Dept of Agriculture veterinary requirements.” Within 24 hours, the post went viral. We were receiving requests from many of the Houston, Dallas, Louisiana and Alabama pet rescue groups to move these pets north. The southern volunteers would often say that they need to get these nice dogs to the green grasses of Michigan. We had hundreds of dogs and some cats preparing to leave but had no transportation to get them here!
We needed an air conditioned bus to transport as many as we could to Michigan, or a plane. On Sept 4th our first pet rescue plane arrived in Muskegon Airport. Pilots n Paws is a volunteer organization of licensed pilots that volunteer to fly planes that are donated for pet rescue.
We had our first modified school bus arrive on Sept 10th. This bus was purchased and modified by a good samaritan within just 1 week to bring the pets from the storm affected shelters to Michigan. We could not accept 30 -100 pets at a time, as our shelter was too small. But as the word got out of our rescue efforts, shelters and rescues and individuals throughout Michigan were offering to help. The response was overwhelming! Fosters Drivers and the donations - both financial and goods, such as dog food, treats, blankets, shampoo, laundry detergent, collars, bleach...were arriving at our door almost hourly.
Since the hurricane season last year, we have brought 340 beautiful Hurricane Harvey Pets to new homes in Michigan. We not only saved those 340 pets, but we also created accomodations for those shelters and fosters to take in 340 more pets.
We couldn’t have done it without the Michigan shelters, fosters and rescues that stepped forward and arrived at the airport to take 3-20 dogs (and cats too), and we couldn’t have done it without the generous hearts of all the people who sent cash donations and pet care products. We were able to give the accepting shelters care packages of the donated goods to accompany the rescued pets they were taking.
Not all of us can drudge through muddy waters following a catastrophic weather event, however, we can all do a small part (cash donation, dog food, drivers, fosters, etc…) and together, we can make a huge difference.
Fifi (her southern name) “Martini” Harvey came on the first plane from a shelter. She was a stray living in the shelter. She is the most gentle, sweet and well behaved dog that I have ever met. I cannot believe that she was overlooked in the shelter and I can’t imagine my life without her.
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