Animal shelters are also being impacted by Hurricane Ian.
Together, the humane societies are ensuring that dogs and cats will be adopted.
They are being flown out of Collier County on aircraft. To find permanent homes, they are being transported around the Northeast.
“I mean, there isn’t a question for us. This is what we do, and as soon as we were able to get out of our homes and back here, we staffed the shelter as much as we could alongside our other through the storm so that our animals here would be safe,” according to Sarah Baeckler of the Humane Society of Naples.
“But we were hearing such devastating stories all over the area, so there wasn’t even a question. I just said, ‘Let’s do it,’” she said.
Hurricane Ian might have claimed the lives of these animals at the humane society.
Instead, the shelter mobilized and saved over 400 canines and felines from high-risk areas like Sarasota, Fort Myers, and Fort Myers Beach.
Some animals were shipped in by plane. Trucks brought in additional people from nearby areas.
They will receive treatment in Naples before being sent up to shelters in the Northeast with more space and available families.
“I shudder to think. Sam and others, a bunch of others, came from Gulf Coast Humane Society, which was absolutely just catastrophic damage there in Fort Myers,” Baeckler said. “We also went to all of our rural shelter partners, tons of flooding. A lot of those shelters are outdoors only, so those animals were outside during the storm. And we just scramble to go get as many as we can and work with this incredible network in Florida of humane societies and throughout the country to get them safe and sound.”
The humane society is gathering supplies in advance. They said they anticipate another massive wave as they clean out their houses and decide whether they can care for their pets.
SOURCE: News Channel 7 WJHG