Animal Welfare Organizations Hitch Ride With Sea Shepherd To Ferry Over Pups Rescued From Bahamas
HOLLYWOOD (CBSMiami) – An animal welfare organization with the help of a conversation society's ship brought precious cargo to South Florida Wednesday.
The John Paul DeJoria, which docked in Hollywood, was carrying animals rescued by the groups Compassion Kind and Humane Haven from the devastated islands of the Bahamas.
These pups came from what was once someone's home.
"These puppies right here," explained one group member, "we actually found in a collapsed house."
Moments later, another rescuer was crawling through debris to get to them.
"We had a bunch of rubble, a mattress, some boards with nails we had to pull the debris out," she explained. "I crawled in to the little crawl space under the foundation and pulled them out."
The pups' mom didn't make it, but along the way they got a pretty good surrogate. Another dog looked after them and was able to nurse them.
They're part of the eight puppies, two dogs and two cats that are heading to new homes. They're some of the lucky ones.
"Some of the animals we've seen stuck in homes that drowned, starved to death because nobody found them," explained Aja Nikiya Estro from Compassion Kind. "It was a very intense thing to see, but we're just happy and hopeful that we can still do more and still find some more survivors out there," she said.
Those animals are heading to Tampa to Compassion Kind's home office. They were will be checked out by veterinarians before being placed in quarantine for 30 days. After that they'll be up for adoption.
To find out more, you can visit Compassion Kind's website.
Compassion Kind hitched a ride with well-known Sea Shepherd, an ocean conservation group that's now helping in disaster relief.
The Sea Shepherd's mission in the Bahamas is known as "Operation Good Pirates."
"We delivered over 60,000 pounds of goods, fresh water, water purification kits, food kids, personal care products, hygiene products, cleaning products," said Jacqueline Le Duc from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. "They need everything."
Sea Shepherd spent three weeks in the Bahamas, making their way to small places that were cut off and delivering three boatloads of supplies. They're trying to do their part as Bahamians begin to put their lives back together.
"Now they want to start rebuilding, so like building supplies, saws, hammers, nails, that kind of stuff, they're ready to get back online," Le Duc said.