The Picture - “This dog was found in New York City with a broken leg. He is currently being treated at an animal hospital. Is This Your Dog?”
Superstorm Sandy's destructive path took lives, forced people from their homes, and shut down entire cities. Its powerful winds and rains also spooked, terrified, and swept thousands of pets away from their homes.
As people struggle to rebuild their lives in Sandy's wake, many have also been left searching for beloved family members--dogs, cats, birds, and other pets.
And while some people look for their pets, other compassionate people are looking for the owners of lost animals that have now wandered into their neighborhoods.
Both groups have now taken to social media to try to reunite pets with owners. A Facebook page called ‘Hurricane Sandy Lost and Found Pets’ has now been set up. This page already has dozens of photos of pets that have been both lost and found. Others are using Craigslist and the hashtag #SandyPets on Twitter.
"People are being very proactive, and number one is being aware that after a storm of this magnitude there are going to be a lot of misplaced people and animals," Penney Jones-Napier told ABCNews.com. "The animals can be very scared, and have gotten away through fences or losing their collars because they got frightened."
Jones-Napier is a Red Rover Responder for disasters in Hyattsville, Md. Red Rover is a national team of volunteers that helps with the animal sheltering component of disaster relief. She has already gotten several calls from people this week who have found lost animals after the storm.
Jones-Napier said that there are some basic steps that people can take if they come across a lost dog.
"If they don't have a collar, take them to a local vet's office, animal hospital, or shelter to determine if they have a chip," she said. The microchip implanted in many dogs today can be a quick way to identify them and to reunite them with their families.
She also noted that if the animals have rabies vaccination tags on their collars, this can be a way to track down their owners through city and county offices and veterinary clinics.
Second, Jones-Napier suggested sheltering or fostering a lost animal yourself if at all possible, since all of the shelters are currently overwhelmed.
Please Help the Many Lost and Found Pets of Hurricane Sandy, any way that you can.
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Again, I thank you, Ed.
Deborah
Anna