Dozens of people in southern Florida are going to look for animals that are in shelters to temporarily take them home during the passage of Hurricane Milton.
The idea is for the shelters to be freed up for other dogs and cats whose owners need to be evacuated from their residential areas.
The act of solidarity will allow these spaces to be freed and increase their availability for pets that need a safe place to weather the hurricane.
It is a tradition in Florida that when a hurricane approaches, nonprofit organizations work to shelter both wildlife such as squirrels, owls, ducks, and opossums, as well as typical pets like dogs and cats.
In September 2019, just days before the arrival of Hurricane Dorian, the Wildlife Center of South Florida, located in Fort Lauderdale, Broward, issued an urgent plea to find foster homes for about 400 animals.
The entity, which treats wounded and orphaned species to heal them and then release them into nature, released the animals that were in good condition, trusting that during the storm, they could remain safer in the wild than inside a cage.
For its part, the nonprofit organization Miami Animal Rescue lamented that as the storm approached Florida, the number of abandoned pets increased, after rescuing 17 dogs.
That year, Republican Senator Joe Gruters from Florida introduced a bill that penalized anyone who left their pet "unattended, tied up, or outside the home" during a hurricane. The law considered such actions as a crime of "animal cruelty" and punished it with a fine of $5,000.
What do you think?
COMMENTFiled under:
