Some of you may know of the massive outbreak of tornadoes in the southeast. Arkansas was hit two weeks in a row. The storms Monday night in Central Arkansas, specifically in the Vilonia area, caused widespread damage. The aftermath has left dozens, if not hundreds, of displaced and/or injured pets and livestock. I spent Tuesday night until 12:30am at the temporary shelter they had set up, triaging horses with a volunteer vet that arrived after spending the ongoing storms in her safe room that afternoon. We both got out, drove over a half hour each, into the teeth of another tornado and flash flood-producing storm to help and what do we arrive to? Chaos. Absolute, utter chaos. Mongolian clusterfuck of the highest order. No organization, no leadership, nothing. My friend was handed a clipboard at 6pm with random notes on it, told "you are in charge now", and abandoned by the other volunteers in the face of oncoming bad weather. Not only was there no one actually doing anything when we arrived (except my friend and she was on the edge of losing her shit) except standing around and causing trouble. One lady was so rude and nasty to volunteers, donators, and people asking for help, that many left unaided.
Why? Why be like that and run off your help? Are you trying to be the sole savior? The animals are the ones who suffer in the end. When the vet arrived, she, my friend and I began working up the horses. The rude person hung around for a bit with her cronies making loud, rude observations then they wandered off not to be seen again. None of the horses had hay left, none had been fed, several had not so much as had anyone look at their wounds. We did what we could, gave Tetanus shots, cleaned at and wrapped wounds, applied topical treatment, gave antibiotics where indicated, sedated and treated several that were too worked up to be touched, hayed, fed, watered and bedded them down for the night. Then we drove home, only to have to get up and go to work in the morning. My friend went back the next day, and rude chick was there, full force. None of the horses had been checked, all needed hay and feed. My friend took care of them, told the rude chick off, and hooked up her trailer and left, warning me not to go up there again because of the rude person who was apparently the self-appointed "in charge" person. Apparently nothing was getting done, people were leaving unaided, with donations un-donated, and volunteers un-volunteering.
Look folks, if you are asking, nay pleading, for help. Don't leave the operation in the hands of someone like this! If you do you will suddenly find it VERY difficult to get people willing to help out in the event of another disaster.
So glad there are poeple like you to help. It must be very scary. It's hard to understand the rude person's motives. I'm glad your friend told her off, but it's such a waste.
ReplyDeleteThat's appalling. I am so sorry you all had to go through that.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, you & your friend were there to help the horses for a while anyways.
ReplyDeleteYou folks in the south really have been hammered hard lately. But as they say, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others.
ReplyDeleteYou had the misfortune to be around the worst.