Jethro is a 2-year-old Beagle.
Chance is a 3-year-old Boxer.
Buttercup is a full-grown yellow Labrador retriever.
Kim Holden of Fox8Live, WVUE-TV in New Orleans tells us that the so-called “trickle-down effect” of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill is affecting man’s best friend in ways we might never have predicted.
Cats, too.
No, our four-legged friends are not becoming oiled by the spill. It’s worse. They are being abandoned and surrendered to shelters.
Fishermen, shrimpers, oystermen, crabbers and seafood processors alike are finding themselves out of work. Their “workplaces” are being designated off-limits. They are excluded from water they have fished for generations. People who can no longer feed themselves certainly cannot feed or afford medical care for a pet.
In other cases both husband and wife are now working in the oil cleanup and are no longer home to take care of the pet(s) and feel obligated to give them up.
The St. Bernard Parish (Louisiana) Animal Shelter is taking the brunt of the domesticated-animal problem. And they are very close to being overwhelmed.
To give you a feel for the magnitude of the problem, the shelter took in 60 animals in May, 2009. They admitted 288 in May, 2010.
On Monday, when the TV station ran this story, three animals had been found deserted by their owners.
States with a shortage of adoptable animals have offered to help and 8 pets are going to unnamed locations.
The Humane Society of the United States has donated 39 pallets of pet food.
If you would like to help, call the shelter at 504-278-1534.
And, please, let your prayers for this disastrous situation continue.
See you tomorrow, Dr. Randolph.
