The Southampton Animal Shelter, a no-kill animal shelter located on Long Island, recently took in four dogs that were all rescued from a sanctuary in Mexico amidst threats of a gang and drug cartel violence. They handed two dogs off to Kent Animal Shelter in Calverton while the other two were transported to Bideawee in Westhampton Beach.
Southampton was first made aware of the situation by Bonnie Klapper, a former federal prosecutor familiar with cartels after she was contacted by the animal sanctuary director. According to the director, gang and drug cartel members were extorting the sanctuary and if demands were not met then 20 dogs stood to be killed. In fear of the dogs’ lives and his own, the director quickly contacted Bonnie.
And so, Bonnie reached out to different shelters who all said they were too busy to help until she was connected to Executive Director Pat Deshong of the Southampton Animal Shelter. There was no hesitation on his part and he agreed that they needed to get the dogs out of Mexico as soon as possible.
After that large-scale teams who are experts in assisting animal shelters in crisis were immediately mobilized. They started obtaining health certificates for the dogs and leasing a cargo plane for transport. The teams also obtained export and import permits as well as searched places for the dogs to go once they were in the United States. After all the necessary preparations were done, the dogs were immediately transported by a rescue group to a facility in Tennessee.
Eight dogs were assigned to the East End of Long Island with four of them namely Layla, Chaparro, Tito, and Abu specifically to the Southampton Animal Shelter. And as of now, they are all looking for their forever families where they would be unconditionally loved and cared for. These dogs definitely deserve that second chance.
Source: MSN
