Recently, Mommy and I watched a documentary that just broke our hearts. “Mine” is a movie about dogs lost and found after Hurricane Katrina. For all you people who must have been living under a rock five years ago, Katrina was a devastating hurricane that destroyed a lot of New Orleans. Many people and animals perished when the levees broke and flooded parts of the city. “Mine” follows both sides of the crisis. The owners who had to leave their animals behind and the rescue groups who worked around the clock to save them and the new owners who don’t want to give up their new family members. I’ll warn you, have tissues ready it is a tough documentary to watch. It makes you think what would you do if you were in the resident’s shoes and you had to choose between saving your family/yourself and saving your pets. Many residents were faced with a terrible choice of either fleeing to safety without their pets or stay behind and hope Katrina doesn’t kill them. The documentary also brings to light the mis-management of animal welfare after the hurricane. There was no long term plans in place on what to do with the nearly half a million pets misplaced in New Orleans.
This documentary also shows the importance of micro-chipping your pets. One small chip could have reunited these animals with their owners. Mommy got me micro-chipped last year. I don’t plan to run away but mommy explained to me that it is just to be on the safe side so no matter what I have information on me that says I want to go home to my parents.
“Mine” is available on I-tunes and if you have Netflix you can rent it or stream it onto your computer. Here is the trailer for the movie.
So true, Double P…Best Friends jumped in there first thing and we hate to think of how many animals may have been lost without their efforts.
The big plus is that emergency shelters started accepting pets! When Rita hit not long after Katrina, people didn’t have to choose so although it was a HARD lesson, things have changed for the better!
Oh….and Best Friends didn’t adopt the animals out so quickly. We understand that the animals needed FOSTERING but people that took the animals in should have realized that someone might come looking for their pet. It’s always hard to give up a foster (which is why we don’t do it) but when the owner has little or no choice but to leave the animal behind, the new “owner” has to think what’s best for the pet.
Again…great reminder!!!!
I had considered watching that movie a few times, but I was afraid it would break my heart.