Customer Reviews

Not Left Behind: Rescuing the Pets of New Orleans

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is very put together for impact, and I got teary throughout my reading. It's amazing the work that people did to get the animals out of danger, but the entire time, while it is a hopeful book, one can only imagine how many weren't able to be saved. The page on cats, in particular, made me sad, as they mention how hard it was to rescue cats compared to dogs, as they wouldn't come when called.

The photos are great, and the stories of rescue are extremely heartwarming. It's an inspiring book written by some great people. I wish it could have been longer and more detailed, but it's great anyway.

This photo-log captures some of the desperate and hopeful moments of post Katrina pet rescues. The photographer spent a few weeks early in the rescue effort snapping shots of mostly dog rescues. The royalties from the book sales go to Best Friends Animal Society, a worthy organization that stepped in to rescue animals after Katrina devastated New Orleans and surrounding areas. The book is mostly pictures of dogs, though all kinds of animals were rescued.

"Not Left Behind" presents a series of photos taken of Best Friends Animal Society members over a two week period, rescuing dogs and cats (a bit problematic - had to trap them using food) left behind. The operation continued over a 249 day period, with up to 75 volunteers on-site at a time, including veterinarians, dog groomers, and other animal lovers. During that time period they rescued over 3,000 animals, with almost all surviving, and none left behind - either returned to owner, adopted out, or taken back to Society headquarters in Utah, 2,000 miles away.

Society members found the military very helpful - often identifying animal locations for them, and feeding those that they could.

Clearly Katrina was (and still is) a tragedy, a tragedy made worse by the inane prohibition against evacuees bringing their pets. (I remember TV showing a little boy ready to board one of the buses, being told he could not bring his dog, and crying his eyes out). "Not Left Behind" helped make up for some of the sadness.

Troy Snow and the Best Friends Animal Society, Not Left Behind: Rescuing the Pets of New Orleans (Yorkville Press, 2006)

After Katrina hit, thousands upon thousands were forced to flee New Orleans and leave their pets behind. (The prevailing attitude of "we'll only be gone a few days, we'll leave a big bowl of food and some extra water" is reiterated here.) As the military worked on trying to get the city back into habitable condition and rescue any surviving people in the city, the best Friends Animal Society went to work trying to rescue the pets. Troy Snow, the group's photographer, documented the weeks they spent outside New Orleans, boating into the city every day to rescue animals that had been trapped by the flood. These are not happy fluffy bunny animal pictures, folks. If you prefer to think of your pooches as gamboling in the breeze, you might want to avoid this one. But Snow's pictures capture the dogged (pardon the pun) determination and will to live of the animals, and are a fitting tribute to their ability to survive. ****

Having worked at the sanctuary in Tylertown, MS where many of these animals were taken after the rescues documented in these extraordinary photographs, this book helps one vividly see what so many of these animals went through after the hurricane and before they arrived at our base camp. More can be said by these photos that captured how these beasts survived the days, weeks and sometimes months after Hurricane Katrina, than any written text can state.

I was also pleased to see that one of the dogs we cared for in the Back 40 in Tylertown whom we named "Piglet" turned out to be the covergirl on this book! She was always so happy to see us when we'd approach her kennel and loved to have suntan lotion rubbed all over her belly -- it is really something to see her story in detail before she came to us at Tylertown. The happy ending is that she was adopted by a family and now has a very happy forever home. :)

This is a haunting photographic depiction of one of the worst tragedies to befall people AND animals in our country....and of the heroic, going-beyond-the-distance efforts of groups of animal rescuers, who flew, drove and bussed themselves into this Katrina-Ground Zero, sleeping on the ground at night, slogging thru toxic water during the 15 hr. days, weeks and months, in the 95 degree heat, often having to break into destroyed houses up to the ceilings with water, to rescue pets that were near-death. Hopefully the Pets Act will go thru, the bill that is currently just passed the Senate, so that from now on, every state in the union that sets up a people-shelter for hurricanes and other disasters, will have to provide one for animals as well, so that people won't refuse to evacuate because they can't take their pets. And, there will be NO PETS LEFT BEHIND. See hsus.org ( Humane Society of the U.S.) for details on the Pets Act and how you can help. Best Friends Animal Rescue is one of the best rescue groups in the world. Bless them for all they do.

This is one of the animal books that has touched my heart deeply. Imagine being a pet, dependent on your owner for basic survival, and then suddenly having no one there to protect, feed, care and nurture you. Imagine this going on for days, with no end in sight. That's what these animals went through. Many of these owners didn't realize how Hurricane Katrina would tear into their lives taking everything away from them including their precious pets. Happily, many of these animals were reunited with their owners again, and for those that weren't, "Best Friends" took care of them. However, these animals were desperate.

Whenever I read about the 2 pit bulls trapped on the rooftop of a submerged car my eyes tear up. Who knows how long these 2 dogs were trapped on that roof, but when the one dog spotted the rescuers--who were in a rowboat due to the flooded streets--he was so desperate by then that he jumped into the water and swam the distance to the boat...which was quite a ways from his rooftop... he swam up to the boat, looked into the eyes of the photographer and just begged to be plucked out of the water, rescued and loved. He didn't even wait for them to get to him, he swam across the water just to get to them. I tear up everytime I think about that pitbull's desperation and feeling of abandonment.

Anyway, read the book. And I have to say that Best Friends is one of best organizations I've ever heard of. They do so much on behalf of animals and they are just a wonderful, wonderful organization. Buy the book and visit www.bestfriends.org! It can be a great coffee table book too.

Utterly moving and heart-warming photos - a beautiful piece of work from start to finish. Highly, highly recommended!

I could only read this book in small doses as I was moved to tears by some of the photos and stories. I would have liked to see more stories on pets being reunited with their owners, but still a GREAT book, and the fact that they royalties go to Best Friends Rescue Fund makes it worth every penny. Buy one for yourself, and one for another animal lover.

This was purchased for a friend who did rescue work at Katrina. This is a wonderful book and should make everyone aware of what was done and what must be done. The Best Friends Animal Society is the BEST there is. They have no gender other than to help and give their all. This book will make you shed tears for those that did not make it but revel in those that did. It is truly a book for the soul. Perhaps this book will cause awareness and we will never allow this to happen again. This is truly for those "forgotten ones". Someone needed to do this. I commend those that saved animals without thought of personal gain. This book shows what loving is. Barbara Sanders