The impact of Super Storm Sandy isn’t over. Not by any stretch. Thousands of people are still without homes, trying to recover from losing everything.

When people are displaced, they don’t get much say in what they get to bring with them… or leave behind. In many cases, families had to leave their pets behind.  Now, months later, their pets are still waiting.

Nassau County put together a shelter in an old gymnasium, in response to the emergency. 514 animals have passed through those doors.  Today they’re down to 125. Some animals have been reunited with their owners, when their owners were able to find pet-friendly living situations.  Other pets transferred to foster care, with hopes of returning to their forever families.

Most situations are still temporary. The shelters were underfunded to begin with, and certainly unprepared for the influx of displaced animals.

Hearts as Big as Trucks

The situation is truly heart-wrenching.  But hearts are big as trucks, and trucks can be filled with pet treats and toys.  JAKKS Pacific, a toy company in Los Angeles, through its JAKKS Cares program, has donated four pallets of goodies to go to the shelter in Long Beach, Long Island, New York. Often, donations like this are faced with prohibitive transportation costs. But big hearts have intervened.

CAP Logistics, ICOSA’s parent company, is arranging the transportation of this 1,700 pound donation through Land Air Express.  Land Air has offered to move the shipment from LAX to JFK at no cost, doubling the generosity of JAKK’s Pacific.

CAP Operations Specialist, Lori Mantia says, “We have an innate responsibility to help people. People there have lost everything, their homes, the personal effects of their entire lives.”

This isn’t the first donation CAP has helped deliver to the hurricane victims. Lori, a native New Yorker, headed a donation drive that resulted in a truckload of cleaning supplies, food, tools, clothing and toys arriving in Long Beach in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The team at CAP Logistics also helped coordinate another shipment of toys from JAKK’s Pacific to Long Beach, so parents would have a chance to ‘shop’ for free before Christmas. Each of those shipments were moved at greatly reduced costs, or for free.

You Can Help

There are more ways to help. The Nassau County Emergency Pet Shelter is looking for more volunteers to foster pets until their owners can take them back. They’ve had a good response for canine foster volunteers, and are in need of more people willing to foster cats.

Any support is welcome, if you can send gift cards for pet supply stores, or a donation of any kind, contact emergencypetshelter@gmail.com.

We would like to express profound thanks to Land Air Express for their part in transporting the latest donation. Your kindness is changing lives and CAP Logistics is proud to partner with you.