Good samaritan killed rescuing 3 dogs

I am posting this in the Hurricane Ike Animal Rescue blog because this happened in Houston, which reports indicate is still trying to recover from Hurricane Ike--so I think there is a good possibility that these dogs were hurricane victims.

"Ike relief worker killed while saving three dogs on freeway

12:33 PM CDT on Sunday, September 28, 2008

Michelle Ponto / KHOU.com

HOUSTON – An Ike Relief worker was killed Saturday night while attempting to rescue three dogs. The stranded animals were huddled together in the middle of East Freeway at Baca Street, in the inside emergency lane.

According to witnesses, the 58-year-old victim had reached the dogs, but did not see the motorcyclist driving in the inside lane. The motorcycle hit him, killing him at the scene.

“The victim was one of the construction workers who had come into town to help with the Hurricane cleanup,” said Sergeant Morgan of the Houston Police Department. “He was on break when the accident happened.”

The victim was from the Florida Keys. According to his co-workers, he was a good man who had offered to come to Houston to help people rebuild as he had been through hurricanes himself.

The motorcyclist was transported to Ben Taub Hospital with minor injuries.

One of the three dogs was also hit, but survived. All three dogs were picked up by the City and taken to the SPCA."

As the saying goes, "there but the grace of God go I." I have rescued animals from highways and I'm sure some of you reading this have also. This is all the more reason to fund all the animal rescues and shelters, including the small ones on this blog, to help keep pets out of danger and reduce the need for good samaritans. like the man in this case, to risk their lives trying to do rescues.

There is a video on the news website that, towards the end, shows the 3 big dogs and in what a terribly precarious position they were in. It also shows the Houston police officers getting the dogs off the freeway with at least one going into a police car. See the video