Pop Art Pet Unleashed

Two dogs that survived Hurricane Katrina are at the center of a custody battle between their old owners in New Orleans and their new ones in Florida.

Master Tank and Nila were owned by Steven and Dorreen Couture who had to evacuate their Louisiana home, leaving the dogs at a local animal shelter. Their house was destroyed and the Coutures were unable to return until five weeks later, when they learned their dogs had been put up for adoption. It wasn’t until months later that they found out Master Tank and Nila had been sent to The Pinellas Humane Society along with 288 other animal refugees. 
 
The Coutures said when they learned in January that the dogs were in Pinellas County, they tried for months to get help. They finally got a response in March when Dr. Kenny Mitchell, Pinellas County’s director of veterinary services, got a copy of a Humane Society spreadsheet listing their dogs. They had been adopted by residents of Florida. The documents also noted that Steven Couture was their owner of record.

The Coutures came to Florida last week trying to get their dogs back, but the new owners say the dogs were adopted legally and are refusing to give them up. Tampa prosecutor Pam Bondi adopted Master Tank, a St. Bernard she renamed Noah. She said she saved the dog’s life. “I legally fostered and adopted a dying dog who had a serious medical condition that long predated the hurricane,” Bondi said. “Had he been properly cared for, I would have been driving him back to New Orleans myself.” The Coutures lost their home in the August hurricane. They say the dogs lived outside but dispute that they were neglected. They say they were treating Master Tank for heartworms. Dunedin resident Rhonda Rineker, who is listed as having adopted Nila, declined to comment.

Steven Couture said he took the dogs to a shelter before the family evacuated with the promise he could get them back. This is why the Coutures blame the Pinellas Humane Society. The family contends that the agency never sent them a letter before the dogs were adopted, a county requirement. The attorney for the Humane Society said, “Our job was to take care of the animals,we did our best to find owners. We don’t have any custody over them. They were adopted out. We believe we acted appropriately at all times and we are comfortable with the things we did.” As a result of the Coutures’ dilemma, Pinellas County adopted an ordinance on June 20 that would make all adoptions conditional for up to 120 days after the date of the state of emergency declaration. It will give people who may be in a situation like the Coutures more time to recover their animals.

Steven Couture said at a news conference he might consider legal action to contest the adoptions. He said his two grandchildren have lost their parents and their home in the past several years. “The only thing they have is these dogs and us, they want the dogs back. It should have never happened.”

Please don’t let this discourage you from adopting – but there are likely many other stories like this since the tragedy of Katrina devastated the pet population in Louisiana as it did. We at Pop Art Pet were so moved that we felt we had to do something. That’s when we learned about Pasado’s Safe Haven. They were unlikely heroes, since they are a relatively small shelter and located in Washington, pretty far-removed from the Gulf Coast. Still, they were one of the first groups to arrive and begin pet rescue efforts. 

And they stayed, and brought in more people, and more resources and rescued 1200 animals! We were so impressed with their action we set out to do what we could to help.

 

 

 

 

 

We pledged to donate 100% of profits from Traditional Style portrait sales, initially for one week in September. But as days passed and the stories and images from New Orleans actually became more disturbing of pets left behind, we knew that was not enough. We sent care packages to volunteers and extended our promotion for an additional five weeks. And thanks to the support of our wonderful and caring customers who purchased portraits during that time to help us, help Pasado, help those animals, we were able to donate nearly $2,500! And not to pat ourselves on the back, but for a tiny little company we felt very good about that!

Since then we have continued to support Pasado’s Safe Haven, a wonderful organization.     We donated artwork and custom portraits to their “Dog Bowl” this year, and met and immortalized Carmen, a happy Black Lab adopted by some very generous Pasado supporters!  

Our ability to raise funds to help animal charities, big and small, local and national, is one of the most rewarding things about this business and one of our top priorities. So we want to thank all our clients past and present for allowing us to do so. In fact, maybe we’ll make July “Client appreciation month!” Stay tuned for details…

In the meantime, please visit Pasado’s Safe Haven’s site and learn more about them. And here are some of our other favorite animal shelters we love to support and hope you will too:

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

Max Fund

Dumb Friends League

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