Dana's Story

Hello,

My name is Dana Liebert. I lived in St.Bernard Parish, Louisiana for the past 35 years until 08-29-05 the day my life changed forever. That Sunday, the day before Katrina hit us, I was staying home I figured I would ride the storm out. I put everything up on my comp. desk thinking if I get water, it would never go 4 feet.
My mom came over that sunday morning and insisted I go stay by her house with her. She lived 10 blks up from me. My home was two blks from lake Bourne canal. Barely my potbelly pig was 180 lbs. I tied open his gate for he stays inside the shed but has a trap door that goes in and out. I figured if water comes in the shed he would at least get out. Gina my cat I left her inside the front bedroom and open the closet door.

I packed an overnight bag and took Tobias my dog with me and left with my mom to go around the corner. mom, dad & I stayed for katrina and thought we would ride it out. Little did I know that night My whole world would
fall apart and be gone in just a moment.

SEE DANA'S STORY CONTINUED IN COMMENTS

EDNAH- A Sheriff To Thank

Please input your email to the right for future blog updates.
The post below this post about Belinda and Pepe are the last blog posts since my last email. I suggest reading both and more...

Hoarders and Abusers no longer safe even in the smallest counties in America
Tammy Hanson has been convicted on 20 counts of animal cruelty, and had a big surprise as she was arrested on 6 new warrants from Arkansas and 1 new felony warrant from MO this afternoon in Baxter County Ark. She was taken into custody by Sheriff John Montgomery of Baxter County Ark. and will be extradited to MO. The look on her face was said to be one of astonishment. She had no idea these new charges were coming. In case you didn't know it she applied for a breeders license in MO and that just ticked everyone off that she would thumb her nose at the current situation/charges. This lady thought her Sh** didn't stink. I was promised the information as it unfolded and they delivered as I got a phone call this evening. Those close to the case said she really thought she was going to get off. Typical hoarder mentality - I did no wrong, I can care for them better, It is a conspiracy! She still seems to have some friends, husband and lawyer who are enabling her. She is never going to stop so she needs to be tracked wherever she goes. The thought that she would be so cavalier as to go apply for a breeders license!

Tammy being told she is being arrested and held on Felony Charges:

See the pictures of EDNAH here if you don't know the mess I am talking about:
The basic story is 500 dogs living in crates and cages of feces and being taken care of by 2 people. It was worse than the mind could imagine. Pics tell 10,000 words.
Before and After Pics At this link:

http://www.mhpets.com/hanson/

When the EDNAH news first broke some of us jumped the gun and made some pretty bad assumptions about what Sheriff Montgomery and his county were all about. It took about 6 hours till the pictures came out and we were all eating crow.

Sheriff Montgomery and his whole team turned out to be an amazing group of professionals. Many animal rescue people often frown on local authorities in small towns (sometimes rightfully so and many times not so). This should show that we might just find a friend if we look hard enough. This entire county rallied behind this issue. Who wants to see a bunch of pooches abused? Even your most die hard farmer has respect and appreciation for his heard of cattle and other animals he is raising. Nobody should put up with animal abuse.

Many small town authorities simply have never had to deal with hoarders, puppymills and other BIGTIME animal welfare issues.

You can email around the case of EDNAH to your local sheriff as an example of how one Sheriff's office said "not in our town." This Sheriff even started the entire thing off with a flight over the property to see what he was dealing with then acted quickly for the welfare of the animals.

Thank you Baxter County. You have one hell of a sheriff. I am sure he treats other human issues just as thoroughly as he did this matter.

There are a dozen others to thank but without the backup of the local authorities these cases go nowhere. Here we go: Desiree Bender, EARS, HSUS, MH Pets, volunteers that took vacation time to go help, Shelters that took these animals and many others that I never heard about.

Tammy in cuffs.


For a good EDNAH rescue story about how unhealthy these animals are go to the comments in this post (3rd comment)
It would be wonderful if all of you could send a Thank you email or Snail mail to Sheriff John Montgomery for all the work that he did to shut down Tammy Hanson's house of horrors.

Sheriff John Montgomery
904 Highway 62 SW,
Mountain Home, AR 72653

Hoarding, fighting, puppymills and worse happen in every state in the country. You can make a difference. Find out who investigates these crimes in your state and support them.
************************************

Back to New Orleans. Here is an new blog I found with some great new pics.
New blog from rescuers in NO now.

http://dogbusters.blogspot.com

One thing that strikes you right away is the sheer number of puppies, feral looking dogs. We need to get these poor animals off the streets.

If this isn't solved they are going to have 20,000 new dogs in New Orleans alone, not to mention other parishes and Miss.
**************************************

Belinda's Letter and What Pepe's Owner Has Been Through

This post speaks to 2 different Issues: 1) The search for Pepe.
Pepe's Story (and the story of many New Orleans pet owners and what they went through) 2) the struggle of Belinda to get her animals returned from the MC SPCA in Maryland

If you didn't live through this flood then you have no idea what horror it must have been.

Many of you have been helping in the Search for Pepe. Unfortunately it has been learned that Pepe did not make it. However, read the story below to understand what these people went through BEFORE judging them as a bad pet owners and doing things like refusing to return their Pets. Eric

Letter Recieved Last Night in Reference to Pepe.

Before I tell you the news I want to tell all my friends who have been helping me search for Pepe, William Wright and his dog Harley a few sincere words from my heart. I want to express my sincere thanks with all of my heart for all your prayers, sweet words of wisdom emails, cards, key ring with Pepe's picture, websites, research reports....on and on all the hard work every night since 9/4/05 you have been with me and I thank you! My Mom thanks you! Please keep in touch with me...who knows maybe Oprah will hold a Cyberspace search and rescue reunion for all of us???? I will email each of you and keep in touch.

I sit here trying to type this note to all of my friends who have been helping me night after night through cyberspace searching, sending emails and questions back and forth so we could piece this nightmare of a puzzle together...................and we did. My Mom's story turns out sad.

I received a phone call today from a lady who found William "Bill" Wright's parents and then found William. William called my Mother today and told her the story of what happened to Pepe.

Remember Mom, Pepe, her neighbor William Wright and his dog Harley were rescued on 8/30/05 from a neighborhood rooftop after sleeping on the rooftop all night. All four were taken to The University of New Orleans. On 8/31/05 little did the remaining people know this would be the last helicopter brought in to take anyone out and to a shelter. Little did they know there would be no more food or water brought in for them. Little did they know how riots would break out, prostitution, rape, drugs, and fires. Thank God William made Mom get on the last helicopter out of there; even though she was forced to leave Pepe. William told her he would take care of Pepe and he tried very hard.

William told me after Mom was taken that afternoon on the 31st of August to Veterans to take a bus to Nicholls State University in Thibodeaux, LA what awful events took place that evening - it was shocking to hear what happened. William took Pepe and Harley and went out of the University of New Orleans classroom to an open field; however staying somewhat close to the building with a few people he could trust. They witnessed fights, women screaming, rapes; children were there, elderly who could not defend themselves from the stranded wicked, mean and evil people.

William told me that they did not have any water, food or supplies brought to them after 8/31/05. William said when he would find food or water he always gave some to Pepe and Harley. He told me that after Mom left Pepe stopped eating and drinking water and sat looking glazed. On September 2, 2005 William left Pepe and Harley under a tree where they had set up camp so he could quickly go to the restroom and when he returned Pepe had died.

Pepe had surgery on his rear end around July, 2005. He had a cyst removed that was cancerous. Pepe had been feeling bad for about a month. William felt so bad about Pepe and did not know how to get in touch with Mom. He only knew his neighbors as Audrey, Malcolm and Pepe.

The story goes on....William decided after 5 days that if he was going to survive he had to get out of there. William and Harley walked 14 miles to Lamar Dixon in Gonzales, LA. So my friend out there in cyberspace that found the video clip with a guy named William and his dog Harley who walked 14 miles to save their lives...you were correct! William helped with the animals being rescued at Lamar Dixon until a shipment of animals was taken to California. William and Harley rode with the shipment and started a new life.

William told us the awful experiences he had at The University of New Orleans. William lost everything just as Mom did and her friends and neighbors. It is so sad what all the people in New Orleans experienced and we wonder why most of them are so bitter. It is really sad that the insurance companies cannot decide what to pay; that Fema hesitates to help these victims. Very, very sad and disappointing how these Americans - human beings have been treated.

Needless to say, Mom is very upset this evening. She had honestly held on with hope and prayer thanks to all of you who have been helping us; then to see the sadness in her eyes and hear it in her voice is crushing! You can tell her to hold on to the good memories; however we all know it hurts to loose your best friend, companion, and the pet that is there loving you unconditionally and trusting you to take care of them until death do you part and you are forced to leave them behind because a city that resides on water, a fish bowl as Dad use to call it, did not have a plan, did not have a heart….why would they make these poor people leave their pets…it is beyond anything I can comprehend. The shelters that cannot be patient long enough to find the owners of the pets scattered throughout the United States…they threaten to euthanize them…WHY???

This email is dedicated to Pepe – we will always have him in our hearts and we will love him forever! Thank you for all your efforts and great job well done!

Dad (in heaven), Mom and Pepe at their home once in New Orleans for over 45 years.

Belinda's Letter to MC SPCA. Just for everyones information, Belinda made several lost dog reports on PF. It would have taken all of an hour to find her if anyone had wanted to be serious about reuniting these dogs with owners.


Click to Enlarge:

An Amazing Stat

From Tara High in Gulfport --

"I just want you to know that since the storm, our euthanasia rate has gone
from 62% to 25%. We are working hard to save every animal possible! One
day we hope our euth rate will be negligible. Thank
God people like you have helped make it possible!"

I bring this up because Tara scoured the country SCREAMING for rescues to come take these animals. Her shelter was destroyed, her area got little press, very little rescue support (compared to New Orleans) and little hands on support from HSUS until recently.

Yet she packed her shelter with double the amount of animals it held and just hung on until help came in to export her animals. They lived day by day for 3 months. It was live by the seat of your pants daily.

With the attention and resources being driven on the area both LASPCA and Gulfport should continue to capitalize on exporting animals out of the region to willing shelters. Let the alerts go out....

See the first comment about the problem we all knew was coming "thousand of puppies" ...