Also, Hurricane Ian has impacted animal shelters.
The humane societies work together to ensure that cats and dogs are adopted.
They will be flown from Collier County by aircraft. They are being moved around the Northeast to find permanent homes.
“I mean, there isn’t a question for us. This is what we do, and as soon as we were able to get out of our homes and back here, we staffed the shelter as much as we could alongside our other through the storm so that our animals here would be safe,” according to Sarah Baeckler of the Humane Society of Naples.
“But we were hearing such devastating stories all over the area, so there wasn’t even a question. I just said, ‘Let’s do it,’” she said.
These animals may have lost their lives due to Hurricane Ian.
Instead, shelter members mobilized to rescue over 400 cats and dogs from high-risk areas such as Fort Myers Beach and Sarasota.
Some animals were brought in by plane. Additional people were brought in by trucks from the surrounding areas.
They will be treated in Naples and then transferred to Northeast shelters with more space and families.
“I shudder to think. Sam and others, a bunch of others, came from Gulf Coast Humane Society, which was absolutely just catastrophic damage there in Fort Myers,” Baeckler said. “We also went to all of our rural shelter partners, tons of flooding. Many of these shelters are only outdoors, so animals were out during the storm. And we just scramble to go get as many as we can and work with this incredible network in Florida of humane societies and throughout the country to get them safe and sound.”
The humane society is preparing supplies ahead of time. They stated that they expect another large wave to hit as they clear out their houses and decide how they will care for their pets.
SOURCE: News Channel 7 WJHG
