History

 

In 1998, Florida suffered greatly from drought and wildfires. Our team used pickup trucks with livestock trailers to rescue over 650 animals and several people from the path of the firestorms that were raging across central Florida. We knew that in the future we would need bigger and better equipment. Today we have specialized trucks and trailers to house animals we rescue and to transport them wherever they need to go.

During Hurricane Charley, Ronnie and Linda Graves used their drag racing team's equipment to help rescue animals in Punta Gorda, Florida. They provided a trailer that became a base of operations for the Charlotte County Animal Control and the Florida Department of Agriculture, along with another 44' trailer that housed our rescued critters. There was a Kenworth Motorhome 32' long with living quarters, two Dodge diesel pickup trucks and a Toyota Tacoma involved as well. We also used Ronnie and Linda's 5th wheel camper to house team mates. During this rescue, we burned up several small portable generators and figured out that we must also consider waste disposal in future rescue runs.

It was during Hurricane Charley that Ronnie had a life-altering experience. A 12-year-old Beagle (Ronnie’s favorite breed, of which he has four) that had been hit by a car was brought into camp after normal hours by two older women in a Ford pickup. We called the emergency vet, who said that it would cost $65.00 just to walk through their doors, not including the actual care required. The ladies had no money. Ronnie took $200.00 out of his pocket and gave it to them. They wanted his address but he would not give it out. This act convinced him to sell his drag racing team and start funding the Sumter DART team. His wife Linda was ecstatic.

When Hurricanes Francis and Jeanne hit central Florida after Hurricane Charley, we were directly involved with rescues in our own county. Animals were not affected drastically in our area except for one falling barn that killed two horses and trapped a third for 24 hours before we got to her, while the owner was attempting to free her. The other concerns for animals were a lack of electricity that kept ranchers from getting water from their pumps to their livestock. We spent several days delivering water with a 300-gallon tank in a three-quarter-ton Dodge 4x4. FEMA would only deliver the ice to the sites, so we used our one-ton Dodge Dually with a flatbed trailer to deliver food and water to two sites in Sumter County. Sumter County Public Works wouldn't provide trucks, fuel, or water, so we had to. This problem has been alleviated now, and in the future we will be provided with fuel and water if we are running rescues in Sumter County.

Ronnie Graves recognized a need for a specialized unit to be ready before the next hurricane season. He firmly held fast to the thought that another bad season would be upon us. Little did he know how correct he would be--the next year would bring the destructive forces of Hurricane Katrina.

During Hurricane Katrina, countless numbers of animals were left in Southern Mississippi for a week after the storm before we were allowed to respond. Once the state of Mississippi relinquished control of the Incident Command to Florida teams, things went a lot smoother. Now in all fairness, they were a bit overwhelmed, but still they held us up; it took a lot of diplomacy on the part of Laura Bevin to finally get them to release us.