By my mother-in-law:

Zoë & Griffin - In Memoriam
On the morning of August 28, 2005, my daughter and her husband made a decision – they left their home in New Orleans and went with their two young dogs to his place of employment, the Audubon Veterinary Hospital on Nashville Avenue. They intended to remain there with the other animals during the pending Hurricane. At the last minute following the Mayor’s mandatory evacuation order, they were forced to leave. Unfortunately, they were also forced to leave their beloved pets along with the other boarded animals. They had every intention of returning as soon as possible; never imagining what would happen on Monday morning. They soothed the dogs; assured them they would soon be back, leaving them with sufficient water and food for several days. When the disaster occurred, they worked frantically to get notification to rescue groups and finally were told that all of the animals had been rescued and taken to Lamar-Dixon. The following weekend, we made the long trip to Lamar-Dixon only to encounter more nightmares. No one seemed to be in charge, volunteers had no reliable information, and information differed from one person to another. So, we searched every square inch of the center with no results. Despite intake forms, no information was available as the forms were piled into a box. We gave every one we spoke to the information on the dogs. Some animals from the hospital seemed to be there, cats. Lastly, she was assured by a member of the SPCA that the dogs would be found . . . would be found. Then we went to LSU Ag Center. Much more organized and humane, but no information. One dog from the hospital was at LSU, but despite looking at all the animals, courtesy of a wonderfully compassionate vet, their dogs were not located. Our efforts, including pleas to check to make sure all animals were out of the hospital via e-mails and phone calls on a daily basis resulted in no information EXCEPT “all animals rescued from the hospital”. Search efforts now expanded to other states. These dogs had microchips; surely they would eventually scan the rescued animals. However, from all the information we received, this had not been done. Still our efforts continued. Phone calls, hours spent looking at web sites with pictures. Calls to shelters out of state, organizations, every avenue pursued. No information EXCEPT “all animals rescued from the hospital”. Hope remained, perhaps they were among the animals shipped out of state, perhaps they were at Lamar Dixon, inadvertently overlooked. Today, on September 20, 2005 at 4:11PM, my daughter and son-in-law received a phone call from the vet who had gotten back to the hospital and discovered that their dogs had been deliberately and cruelly left to perish of starvation and dehydration, alone, with no further attempts made, despite our unceasing efforts to locate these beloved family pets. Who left them to perish in such an inhumane, cruel manner: the SPCA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It is terrible, heartbreaking, with no possible explanation that will suffice to ease the pain for our family. Every one of us has lost everything, except our selves: homes, possessions, keepsakes, photographs, any evidence of our family history. We held on to the hope that our pets would somehow be reunited with us – now that hope is gone. We will somehow survive all of this. My goal now is to make certain that such inexplicable actions on the part of an organization that assured us over and over that these animals had been rescued do not go unquestioned.