(crossposted at DailyKos and My Left Wing)
Dear Netroots, I need your help. Or rather, I need you to help me help an Iraq war veteran AND Katrina survivor. Like many New Orleans residents, Lt. Jay Johnson’s family were forcibly separated from their beloved pet, a little dog named Missy. And like many residents, he hasn’t yet been reunited with his beloved pet. But here’s the difference: he knows his dog has survived, and he knows that there is someone who knows where she is. But they won’t tell him, because his family is a poor, black New Orleans family who couldn’t possibly be good pet owners, certainly not as good as the Texas family who’s got her now.
This is my very first Kos diary, though I have been a member since January 8th, 2005, and I visit Kos 10, 15, 20 times a day, every day. I’ve gotten up the nerve, after all this time, to write this diary because someone is counting on me, and I am about to fail him. You, dear friends, are my last resort.
The beginning for me was…
…when I started to follow the story of Katrina, particularly the story of the animal rescue effort underway. I had registered with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to be deployed to help. But I waited, and waited, and the phone never rang. Meanwhile, I was following different blogs on the subject, and it was VERY clear that New Orleans was desperate for more volunteers. So, on my own, and having never done such a thing, I booked a flight to Baton Rouge and on September 19th I just showed up at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center, in Gonzales, LA, ready to work.
Lamar Dixon normally functioned as an expo center for equestrian events, flea markets, etc. There were 6 huge barns with a total of 960 horse stalls. The HSUS and the LASPCA had rented Lamar Dixon and transformed it into a massive triage center for all the thousands of pets who were being rescued from the streets of New Orleans.
I got to Gonzales at 2am. After passing through the National Guard checkpoint at the entrance (there were human evacuees housed there as well), I drove up to the barns, parked the car, and got out. What hit me first was the heat, heat I’ve never known before (hey, I live in Vermont!). The second thing to hit me, and the thing that has never left me, was the sound. The sound of thousands of dogs barking. Two in the morning…barking…barking…barking. And their barking never stopped, never quieted down, for a single moment over the days I was there. If you were not there, I can never really explain it to you, but it was the most haunting, desperate, chaotic sound I’ve ever experienced. More than the sights, it is this sound that haunts me still.
The way things worked at Lamar Dixon was that teams (dozens? hundreds?) would fan out across the city first thing in the morning and rescue as many pets as they possibly could before the 6pm curfew. Then they would all drive back to Gonzales and check in with the animals. This process took hours; if you got back to Gonzales by 8pm, you would likely still by in line at midnight or 3am. Each pet was triaged, given a number, photographed, placed in a cage, and put in one of the horse stalls along with whatever pets were already there. Then as soon as possible they where shipped out to animal shelters from around the entire country, in order to make room for the new batch that would be coming in the very next day. Everyone did their very best under incredibly chaotic circumstances, but many mistakes were made, and many, many beloved pets are now “lost in the system”.
I could write a book about my experiences at Lamar Dixon, and about going into the city of New Orleans to pull dogs and cats from houses, but there is no space for that now. I just wanted to give you a little background so you will understand the story of 1st Lt. Japheth (Jay) Johnson and his dog Missy.
Lt. Jay Johnson is a member of the Army National Guard, and was in Iraq when Katrina hit. Upon leaving for Iraq, he placed Missy, his 5 year-old Shih Tzu mix dog, in the care of his mother, Vanessa Johnson. Ms. Johnson lived in the Ninth Ward. This is her home now. This is the inside of her home now.
When Ms. Johnson evacuated her home, she was forced to leave Missy behind. No one was allowed to bring any pets along, and besides, they would be returning home in just a few days (or so everyone believed). Missy was left in the house, with loads of food and water.
And then Katrina came…
Jay returned from Iraq to New Orleans on September 15th, the same day Bush bothered to show up. No hero’s welcome for him (Jay, I mean), but instead a destroyed city, a displaced family, and a missing beloved dog. After tracking down his family in Baton Rouge, he immediately tried to get to the Ninth Ward home to find Missy, but residents were still not allowed to enter that part of the city.
As we were to discover months later, Missy was actually rescued the very day Jay arrived in New Orleans. An animal rescue volunteer, we don’t know who, found Missy a few blocks from her home, and took her to Lamar Dixon. From Lamar Dixon she went, on September 16th, to the McKinney Texas branch of the Dallas SPCA. At that time, a McKinney representative signed an MOU (Memo Of Understanding) with the HSUS, LASPCA, and ASPCA. Here is a copy of one of those MOUs. (631K GIF file) (I dare any lawyer to take a look at that document and not laugh out loud. Particularly, the part that says, “On October 16th, the unclaimed animals will become the property of the Satellite Shelter.” The HSUS appears to be giving away pets they don’t own in the first place.) Also, please notice where it says, “SSA must ensure the pets are posted on petfinder.com through October 16th and assist with trying to find the original owner (emphasis mine).”
Before I go any further, I want to make it very clear how I feel about the hundreds of shelters who took in Katrina pets, and the thousands of volunteers who showed up in New Orleans to rescue those pets: they are heroes, every single one of them, without exception. The conditions under which they worked, the sights that they saw, the unending, unendurable suffering they were witness to, the lack of sleep or food, the chaos, the chaos, the chaos. I know that, for me, being in New Orleans last September is the closest I will ever get to experiencing what war must be like. And every single person I know who was there is haunted by the experience.
Everyone did the best they could, but mistakes were made. Huge mistakes. Painful mistakes. I made mistakes, things I wish I could take back and do over. And the McKinney shelter made a mistake; they gave away Jay’s dog when they knew she belonged to him.
When Missy arrived at McKinney they scanned her, and found a microchip. They called the AVID microchip company, reported the number to them, and AVID informed them of who the dog was registered to. McKinney says they called the phone number connected with the microchip, but the phone wasn’t in service. Yes, it’s true, the phone number wasn’t in service. That phone number wasn’t in service for months, in fact. (See, there was this little matter of a hurricane…) McKinney says they sent a certified letter to the address, giving Missy’s owners ten days to reclaim her. But guess what? There wasn’t any postal service for months, either! (see above hurricane comment) That certified letter hasn’t arrived to this day.
McKinney did put a “Found” report on Petfinder.Com, as requested by the HSUS/LASPCA. Petfinder.Com was an online database where all Katrina pets were supposed to be listed, with all the relevant data like where the pet was found, rabies tags, gender, special identifying marks, etc. But like all things Katrina, this process of collecting and reporting accurate data was a chaotic mess. (Just one example is that in the early days at Lamar Dixon, as the dogs were brought in from the toxic sludge and given baths, all of their collars were cut off and thrown away, the theory being, I guess, that the collars were toxic. But of course, you just threw away the only chance that dog had of ever going home.)
The Petfinder.Com company threw a special Katrina database together in a matter of days, and it is only because of them that any pets got home at all. The database, however, was near impossible for a novice to navigate and understand. And then there was the issue of dog breeds….For example, Jay calls Missy a Chow Chow mix. But the McKinney shelter folks called her a Lhasa Apso, Shih Tzu mix. If Jay didn’t put Lhasa Apso in as a search term, Missy wouldn’t show up.
But before a New Orleans owner ever even got to the problem of what search terms to use on PetFinder, there were a few hurdles to overcome. First, you had to know that a pet rescue effort was even happening. Second, you had to somehow hear about PetFinders, and understand what it was (one evacuee I spoke to who was searching for his rescued dog told me, “They spray painted PetFinders on my house, but I have never been able to find that store.”). Third, you had to have internet access (don’t think Red Cross shelters and hotels were providing this service!). Fourth, you had to know how to use the internet. Fifth, you had to have some idea how to do a database search.
McKinney shelter, like many other shelters, received a $50,000 check from the HSUS to assist with the costs of caring for and reuniting the Katrina pets they took. The ASPCA also gave McKinney a similarly large grant for the same purpose. In exchange for those rather significant funds, McKinney’s effort to locate Jay was one phone call, one letter, and a report on Petfinders.Com.
Missy was adopted out by the McKinney shelter on or about October 15th.
Jay, meanwhile, searched the city for his dog. He went to the house as soon as he was allowed in the Ninth Ward to see if there was any sign of her, alive or dead, or to see if rescuers had spray painted any information on the house. He went to Lamar Dixon, and walked the stalls. (there was never a sadder sight then to see these families walking up and down the stalls, looking and weeping all the way. I never saw anyone find who they were looking for). He went to some of the other rescue centers he heard about, like Camp Lucky in St. Bernard Parish and Winn Dixie (a rescue center set up in the parking lot of a Winn Dixie store). He never heard about PetFinders, but eventually he did hear that the HSUS had set up an 800 line. He called them on November 4th, and they told him about PetFinders, and helped him put up a “Lost” report for Missy.
Around this time a woman in San Antonio, Texas had a vision. Marilyn Knapp Litt was helping evacuees in a Red Cross shelter try to find their relatives by searching databases where evacuees were listed. She realized that these people were going to need help, and lots of it, to find their pets. She started a Yahoo group called Stealth Volunteers for this purpose. I joined this group in October. And let me tell you…no offense, but DailyKos has got nothing on Stealth Volunteers when it comes to being grassroots, and that’s saying something. In its heyday we had over 600 members around the country, and a few other countries, spending countless hours on-line trying to connect pet with person. We used a reverse process; instead of looking for a black lab who was last seen on Smith Street, we combed the Petfinders database, and would pick out any dog or cat who had the most complete information. For example, the record might say the cat was found at 1640 North Robertson. Then we would search other databases to find out who lived at 1640 North Robertson, pre-Katrina. Once we had a name, we would search the Red Cross databases to see if that person was in a shelter. If we couldn’t find them, we would try to find their relatives, assuming that they had probably been in touch. Many matches were made from looking at old wedding announcements archived online! We googled till it hurt. And by the end of December, Stealth Volunteers had successfully reunited over 1000 pets with their families. This number is far more than any one else accomplished, including the HSUS who received over many millions in Katrina donations and managed to reunite about 300 pets. And Stealth Volunteers did this with no staff, no leader, no money, no donations, no press, no 501c3 status, just Yahoo and a keyboard.
And so it was that just after Christmas a Stealth Volunteer (from Belgium no less), made the connection between Missy’s Found report and Missy’s Lost report. She immediately contacted Jay by email, telling him to look at the Found report, as she thought it might be his dog. “Yes, that is my dog. That’s my Missy.”, he wrote back.
Jay called the McKinney shelter immediately, only to be told, “Sorry. You’re too late. Missy belongs to someone else now.” They would not tell him who had Missy.
Jay, Jay’s mother, and several Stealth Volunteers called the shelter many times, asking, pleading, demanding, begging, that they tell Jay where Missy is. Stealth Volunteers even asked if they would be willing to simply pass on a letter from Jay to the people who adopted Missy. They refused.
I know that if only Jay had been allowed to talk, heart to heart, with the family that now has Missy, they would have returned her immediately. Imagine how mortified you would be to find out that you had this dog, and that the dog’s owner had been searching desperately for them for months? Most people of good heart would do the right thing, no matter how painful, and return Missy to the family that loves her.
Yes, most people of good heart would return Missy. Unless you had been given the impression that Missy had been abandoned, left to die, valued no more than trash. Unless you had been given the impression that the people of New Orleans don’t take good care of their pets; that all the dogs were allowed to die of heartworm, or were left chained up in back yards, or were used for dog fighting. Unless you had been given the impression that New Orleans pet owners just don’t love their dogs the same way you or I do.
And that is the impression that many shelters and animal rescue people around the country have given to these new adopters. There are dozens of cases just like Jay’s, and in every one, the original New Orleans owner has been accused of being a bad pet owner, undeserving of having there pet returned. Here are a bunch of articles about some of these cases, lucky enough to get some media attention. Read them, and I think you will agree that what is at the heart of the refusal to return these pets is racism and classism, pure and simple.
It hurts me to admit that parts of the animal rescue community are racist or classist, because I am part of that community, but after months of trying to get these animals back home, listening to the excuses for keeping these pets, I have reluctantly come to that ugly conclusion.
We do not know what, if anything, the people who have Missy have been told about Jay. We heard through some back channels that McKinney did talk to the new owners, and the new owners refused to return Missy. But we do not know if this is true, and if it is true we do not know why they refused to return her (though I would assume it is because of the issues outlined above).
Jay must be given the opportunity to talk to this family, and Missy must be returned to Jay. Because the McKinney shelter has refused to tell us where Missy is, Jay has had no choice but to sue the shelter for that information. He have not sued for money, or damages (though you could certainly make an argument for emotional distress), he simply wants the name of the person who adopted Missy. But the McKinney shelter, with the relatively deep pockets of the Dallas SPCA backing them, are fighting us all the way. Currently they are claiming that the Louisiana courts have no jurisdiction over a Texas shelter. And after we win that one, they will likely throw something else at us. Delay, delay, delay. Meanwhile, Jay’s suffering and anger increases and the new family gets more and more attached to Missy (and Missy to them), so that when the inevitable happens it will be even more painful for this family to give up Missy. And it is inevitable that they will have to return Missy. Under no law did the HSUS have the right to assign ownership of Missy to the McKinney shelter. And therefore, under no law did the McKinney shelter have the right to assign ownership of Missy to the new family. (This is why McKinney is fighting us on jurisdiction issues, because they know they have no other argument to make.)
Lets use an analogy… When I was down there breaking into houses, I saw a lot of nice antiques, and there was this one painting that particularly caught my eye. Lets say I broke into that house, took that painting off the wall, because I was afraid the flood waters would destroy the painting, and brought the painting back home to keep it safe. And then I gave the owners of the painting 30 days to claim it. Never mind that they would have no way of knowing where the painting was, or how to get in touch. And then when they finally did track me down, say 3 months later, I said to them, “Sorry. You are too late. It’s mine now. You should just be happy that I saved it. And besides, I noticed that you hung the painting in direct sunlight, you were not taking good care of it.”
Ridiculous, right? But a dog is not a painting. All animal people would say a loved pet is a family member. Well, a human family member in this situation would of course be returned as well. If both a painting and a human would be returned without question, I do not understand why a dog falls into some special undefined category where she is not returned.
Again, it is inevitable that Missy will be returned to Jay. As long as we don’t give up, as long as we follow the legal process to the end. So far the courts have agreed with Jay, as they should. A temporary restraining order requiring the return of Missy was issued in June. Of course, she was not returned, and Jay and his lawyer will have to continue to press the case to actually get Missy back home. And that, finally, is why I am telling you this story. I, and a few other members of Stealth Volunteers, have been paying the bulk of the legal fees for this case. And we are out of money; that is just the fact. We thought this case would be over long ago, that once the shelter saw that Jay had legal counsel, they would give us the name. We have tried everything to raise funds for this case, but it seems no one want to support legal cases, not glamorous enough, not pretty enough. I guarantee that if we were simply asking for money to get food or vet care for Missy, people would come though. But for legal fees…no thank you.
I am within days of having to tell the lawyer to drop the case because we simply cannot afford to pay the back bills, nor any future bills. Jay does not know that this is the case, and I do not want to have that conversation with him. This man went through Iraq, then went through Katrina, and continues to go through Katrina, and now he may be abandoned again, and left to struggle through this alone.
I don’t know what else to do but humbly ask you, my Kos friends, to help, to dig into your pockets once again. Five or ten dollars is all I ask. And you have a chance to actually do something tangible to help an Iraq solder and Katrina survivor. Please.
There are two ways to contribute…
1. The preferred way is for donations to be sent via Paypal (www.paypal.com) to my address, donna@vermonters.com Donations coming via this route will be immediately applied to Jay’s lawyer fees, who sends his bills directly to me. Donations via this route are not, however, tax deductible.
2. You can also send a tax deductible donation to:
Katrina Pets Reunion Fund
c/o Friends of the Animal Shelter of St. Bernard Parish
PO Box 1095
Chalmette, LA 70044
You can also donate to this fund online by going to: http://partners.guidestar.org/…
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DONATE VIA THE KATRINA PETS REUNION FUND, YOU MUST SPECIFY THAT IT IS TO BE DIRECTED TO THE PRECIOUS & MISSY FUND!!!! Otherwise, it will be deposited into a general fund that will be used for other cases or needs.
If you cannot afford financial support, please at least hit “Recommend” so that others may see my plea.
This diary has gone on too long already, so I must stop it here. But I know that there are many questions that I have not yet addressed, questions that come up time and again when I discuss this case with people. So, for those of you who are interested, I will try to address some of these questions in the comments sections. Questions like…”If you sue shelters who took in Katrina pets, won’t they be reluctant to go into a city and help out the next time?” Or “Its been a year…isn’t it time to leave well enough alone?” Also some of these questions are addressed on the website my husband has set up, www.preciousandmissy.com. You can also see some of the legal documents there, and information about some of the other legal cases involving Katrina pets.
And please, even if you are as pissed off as I am, DO NOT call the McKinney shelter to complain. Irritating them will not help this case. And I also want to avoid letting them know we may not have the funds to continue the case.
Thank you for reading.
