Posted: January 29, 2010, 2 a.m. EST
Hurricane Katrina’s pets – and the people who loved them – suffered untold misery during the 2005 storm and its devastating aftermath. Now a new documentary, “Mine,” chronicles the plight of dog owners who found their pets in new homes living with rescuers or adopters who didn’t want to give them back.
“A lot of people that I met just didn’t know what they could do,” filmmaker Geralyn Pezanoski told The Associated Press.
One of Pezanoski’s subjects, Jessie Pullins, was just reunited with his dog J.J. in June.
“He stuck with it,” she says. “Hundreds of families were looking. It’s [been] four years; most have given up and moved on. I know of a handful of cases of people still looking.”
Pezanoski herself adopted a Katrina pet, and can empathize with people who returned foster animals to their rightful owners.
“You go into it thinking there’s a good guy and a villain, and I realized there isn’t one or the other. They were all trying to do the right thing,” she says. “They all loved animals.”
“Mine” won an Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival. To learn more, visit the film’s website.