Comments on: Can you help the pets of the flooded Midwest?

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:42:50 +0000

I’ve had the good fortune to work alongside Best Friends folks as a volunteer for a number of years, and I know the gentleman in the dry suit with the sunglasses and the kitten personally - an ex-marine with swift water rescue training who I have the utmost respect for.

By: H. Houlahan

H. Houlahan — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:46:38 +0000

As a veteran of Katrina recovery operations (searching for human victims through a state-to-state EMAC deployment request for *qualified* responders), I would caution everyone to employ the utmost skepticism about any individual’s or organization’s self-accounting of their own disaster heroics. Especially when done in the vicinity of a PayPal button.

After seeing the on-ground performance of some parties in Mississippi, then observing the accounts they used for fund-raising purposes after the fact, even I could still muster some astonishment at the extent of the reality gap.

Also in Mississippi, the Best Friends “worker” that I encountered while waiting for task transport was intrusive and proprietary towards my canine partner, to the point that I had to tell him to take his hands off her and leave her alone. (A less tolerant dog would have done so herself.) It was ICKY. This was a a person who was neither trained nor equipped to be in the place we encountered him, and there were no animals in need of rescue there. (The wild boar probably would have turned him down, as they were doing quite well on flood debris.) But it was a great photo op site.

Again, skepticism is in order about the self-reporting of any party that “helps” at a disaster. I’ll refer all to the ersatz “Bear Search and Rescue Foundation” for lessons learned by too many credulous people.

By: Jeni

Jeni — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:37:38 +0000

Nice pictures, they really bring home what is happening there. I am so proud of my rescue friends in Iowa City. They acted quickly, and are even havign successful adoptions in their emergancy shelter. I’m also proud of the families there in the red cross shelter, that are visiting, walking and caring for their pets in the emergancy animal shelter daily. It’s that amazing human / animal bond at work.

By: Kelley

Kelley — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:42:26 +0000

While I concede Best Friends does do good for animals, they have treated me personally absolutely abysmally, and they won’t get a dime from me, ever. I can - and do - give money to organizations that treat both animals and people well.

By: JenniferJ

JenniferJ — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:27:00 +0000

While I may disagree with Best Friends on a few issue, they are NOT hypocrits. They do try to do the best for any animal that comes into their care and they practice what they preach. I have always admired their positive approach and use of examples of successes to make friends and allies out of the animal loving public rather than threats, hyperbole, and stunts.

I will happily send them a donation, thank you for posting this info

By: slt

slt — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:33:28 +0000

That picture is great! The cat looks like he’s thankful for the rescue but is really ready to get back in his kittycup now.

I feel the same way about Best Friends - don’t agree with them on all the issues but they do a lot of good for the animals. Other than complaining about the pigs that were shot on the levee, I haven’t heard of PETA doing anything to help the animals affected by the floods. I guess they figure their mobile death van couldn’t drive through the water so they can get more killing done by staying in their glass house in VA.