Trucker Rescues 64 Dogs And Cats From Hurricane Florence Floodwaters… And Still Going!

Transportation Nation Network Featured News

Tony Alsup, a 51-year-old trucker from Greenback, Tenn. loves animals. Yeah, I know what you may be thinking… “I love animals too.” Alsup loves animals not like, “oh cute, you have to see this adorable cat video on Facebook.” No, he loves animals like “C’mon honey! Let’s buy a school bus and head straight into hurricane ravaged flooding areas and rescue animals from shelters that no one wanted as pets.” Now you’re starting to get the picture. In the last week, Alsup and his bus have rescued 53 dogs and 11 cats from South Carolina shelters that were in Florence’s destructive path. “I’m like, look, these are lives too,” Alsup told The Washington Post during an interview last week. “Animals  — especially shelter pets — they always have to take the back seat of the bus. But I’ll give them their own bus. If I have to I’ll pay for all the fuel, or even a boat, to get these dogs out of there.”

This trucker says it all started last year during Hurricane Harvey when he saw on the news how animal shelters became overcrowded with lost or rescued animals. He was determined to help them, but he knew he couldn’t put them in a semitrailer. So, what did he do? “I’ll just go buy a bus,” he told the Washington Post. So that’s what he did. He spent $3,200 to buy an old school bus and immediately drove it to Texas to begin rescuing animals, and he hasn’t looked back. He has helped rescue animals during Hurricanes Irma and Maria and now Florence.

 

 

In a Facebook post last week he declared, NO ONE LEFT BEHIND. That may well be his motto because he says that some one needs to save “the leftovers” too. In a video interview courtesy of the Greenville News (video above) he said, “It’s so easy for people to adopt the small pets and the cuties and the cuddly. We take on the ones that deserve a chance even though they are big and a little ugly. But I love big dogs, and we find places for them.” For Alsup, it’s pretty simple. When people ask him the inevitable question of “why?” His answer is clear. “I love it,” Alsup told the Greenville News. “People don’t believe me, they say it’s got to be barking crazy. But no. They know I’m the Alpha dog and I’m not here to hurt them.”

In a recent post to his Facebook page Tony says they are headed to Lumberton, North Carolina today and hopeful they will be able to make it there because so many roads are closed. However, Tony says he heard from a shelter there that needed help. If you’ve read this far you are not surprised because if we’ve learned one thing about Tony it is he’s not going to leave any one behind.

You can follow Tony’s rescues via his Facebook page, Tony’s Emergency Animal Rescue Shelter. If you would like to help Tony by either volunteering or making a donation, Tony says via his Facebook page they are in need of food and supplies for the animals and money for fuel. You can make a donation by visiting his PayPal page.

The featured video is shared courtesy of the Washington Post.

Do you have an opinion you would like to share about this video and article? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below. Transportation Nation members can sound off any time. Just remember you must be logged in. Thanks!