Help Joplin Tornado Pets With One Click

You can help the hundreds of pets left homeless by the May 22 Joplin tornado simply by one little click of your mouse.

Philanthropist and American Dog Rescue founder, Arthur Benjamin has announced that for every "Like" that the American Dog Rescue page on Facebook, his foundation will donate a dollar to the Missouri Humane Society - part of which will go directly to the Joplin Humane Society.  Benjamin will donate up to $10,000 through his foundantions.The money will go directly to help care for the animals.

“The disasters that struck Joplin and the surrounding areas in Missouri were devastating,” said Benjamin. “And while immediate efforts were made on the ground to rescue animals in danger, to recover lost animals, and to reunite families with their pets, there is still so much to be done. The awe of the situation struck the hearts of Americans, which is why it is so powerful that a viral fundraising campaign like this be launched so people from around the country can help. Through the unwavering efforts of the HSMO, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), The Arthur E. Benjamin Foundation, and American Dog Rescue, there is no doubt that we will make a difference in the aftermath of this devastation. Never has one click, one ‘like,’ one fan been so meaningful to thousands of lives – both animal and human.”

Head on over to Facebook now and click that mouse!  www.facebook.com/AmericanDogRescue 

Joplin Tornado Survivor: Family Searching for White Bulldog Hanah

Photo: Bring Hanah Home

I've written about Hanah in a previous post about pets and the Joplin tornado.   Hanah is still missing and her family is desperate to get her back.  Thanks to a photo taken after the twister and another siting, they know that Hannah survived the tornado.  Unfortunately, if Hannah returns to her home, there's nothing there.

Please take a look at this slide show about Hannah and pass it along via Facebook, Twitter and any other way you can share it.  Hannah may very well have been picked up by well meaning animal rescuers and now could be just about anywhere in the United States.  Pets who have been rescued from the storm will begin to be adopted out this weekend.

Hanah is 5 years old and weighed 110 pounds before the tornado.  She's an American Bulldog and a spayed female.  Hanah is white and has one blue eye and one hazel brown eye. 


Hanah has been seen twice since the tornado his Joplin on May 22.  Once on E 26th Street in Duquene.  Hanah lived on 27th Street.  The post-tornado photo in the slide show was taken in Duquense.  The people who live at that location have livestock.  Hanah was carried to the side of the house.  When the sirens went off in JHoplin the second night after the tornado, Hanah ran into some bushes.  Neighbors at a house two doors down spotted her in the yard later.


So far, Hanah has not been spotted at the Joplin Humane Society animal shelter.  There is a reward for her return - no questions asked.  If you see Hanah - at a local shelter or on a venue like Facebook - contact her owner, Kari Wilkes at 1-417-529-8088.  If you see Hanah in the Joplin area, please do NOT approach her.  Call that phone number to report the siting and someone will come asap.

You can read more about Hanah, her family, and the massive effort that has been launched to find her at Bring Hanah Home.

Joplin Tornado: Adopt a Dog or Cat Event June 25 - 26

More than three weeks after an EF5 tornado ripped through Joplin, nearly 900 dogs and cats remain sheltered at the Joplin Humane Society, most of them unlikely to ever be reunited with their owners according to Alan Scher Zagier of the Associated Press.

Adopt-a-thon scheduled for June 25 - 26.

Hundreds of dogs and cats peer out from their cages at the Joplin Humane Society, some with cuts, infections and broken bones from the deadly tornado that turned their lives, like of those their owners, upside down.

Since the tornado, the Humane Society has found itself overflowing with animals, with about 900 now calling the shelter home — three times its usual inventory. One way or another, the pets became separated from their owners in the chaotic aftermath of the May 22 twister that tore through this town, killing 153 people. In some cases, the owners — scrambling to find housing for themselves after 7,000 homes were destroyed, leaving nearly one-third of the city's 50,000 residents homeless — have simply given up their pets.

But the Joplin Humane Society is determined to find a home for every cat and dog. To that end, it plans an "Adopt-a-thon" the weekend of June 25-26, when animals that haven't been claimed by their owners will be given away free to good homes, after being spayed and neutered.

"The reality is, a lot of these people aren't in a position to come get these animals," said Joplin native Tim Rickey, a field investigator for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "They've lost everything."

Executive director Karen Aquino said it's not that the Humane Society hasn't tried to find the owners.

"We feel we've exhausted every avenue to get the word out," Aquino said. "We've placed 250 yard signs. We have posters at food and donation distribution points, public service announcements on radio and TV, ads in the newspaper — everything we could think of to let people know their pets might be here if they're missing."

To handle the additional cats and dogs, the organization fixed up two vacant warehouses next to the shelter into air-conditioned kennels. A gravel parking lot outside a former used appliance store has been converted into an owner's waiting room, with plastic chairs and Polaroid snapshots of unnamed animals stuffed into thick three-ring binders.

Aquino said none of the pets left homeless by the tornado will be euthanized.

"If all of them aren't adopted, we'll start looking to rescue organizations and ways to get some of them to larger cities where they have a better chance at adoption," she said.

More than 100 volunteers from across the country, many from other shelters, are in Joplin helping out — cleaning cages, providing veterinary care and exercising the animals. On most days, a half-dozen veterinarians are at the shelter tending to the wounded.

The work is exhausting, the plight of the animals sad. But spirits are buoyed by good news, such as the recent story of a cat found alive by its owner 16 days after the tornado.

"We've heard some amazing stories," Aquino said. "Animals are pretty resilient."

When Steven and Debbie Leatherman found their lost dog, Sugar, at the shelter, her back legs were paralyzed. Someone had apparently dropped off the 10-year-old cocker spaniel after finding her in a drainage ditch and about to drown. The University of Missouri says the Leathermans' son, Daniel, drove the dog to its veterinary hospital in Columbia, where veterinarians performed spinal surgery that gave Sugar back the use of her legs.

But some owners, such as 47-year-old Linda Head, still haven't been able to find their pets. Since the storm, Head has been looking for 2-year-old Isabel, a labrador/Great Pyrenees mix, and 5-year-old Puddles, a cockapoo.

Both dogs hunkered down with Head, her 23-year-old son and a third dog, Max, in and around a bathtub in their home that was obliterated by the tornado. Head lost Puddles when the dog jumped through the shattered window of a car as Head's son was driven to seek medical care. Max also jumped out in the tumult, but he turned up nearly two weeks later at a Kansas veterinarian's office. Isabel hasn't been seen since the tornado, though Head's hopes were briefly buoyed when a neighbor thought he saw the dog running loose. He was mistaken.

Head visits the shelter twice a week, hoping her dogs will turn up.

"Honey, when I left here the first time, I bawled all the way home," Head said during a recent visit to the shelter. "I'll bawl all the way home today, because I don't have my buddies."

For more information visit the Joplin Humane Society on the web.  There you can view photos and information of the pets currently in their care.