Tony Alsup is a 51 year old trucker from Greenback, Tennessee.
Tony drove into South Carolina last week to fill a school bus with dogs and cats from animal shelters in the path of Hurricane Florence, which was bearing down on the Carolina coast. Florence was downgraded to a tropical storm after it made landfall Friday, but strong winds, torrential rain and flood waters have devastated communities and killed at least 11 people.
But on Monday, when the hurricane was still a few days from shore, Alsup drove his school bus to shelters in four South Carolina towns "“ North Myrtle Beach, Dylan, Georgetown and Orangeburg "“ loading up 53 dogs and 11 cats and busing them to an awaiting shelter in Foley, Alabama. From there, the pets will be spread to shelters throughout the country, ready to be adopted.
paypal.me/tearsorg
Posted by Tony Alsup on Sunday, September 16, 2018
Situation report from St Paul NC area.
Posted by Tony Alsup on Sunday, September 16, 2018
This was not Alsup's first rescue. Over the past year, he's hauled shelter pets out of hurricane zones in Texas and Florida and flown to Puerto Rico to save even more. Rescues like these have become a calling for him.
In less than 48 hours, he stopped at the Humane Society of North Myrtle Beach (S.C.), the Dillon County (S.C.) Animal Shelter, another in Orangeburg, S.C., and Saint Frances Animal Center in Georgetown, S.C., which sang his praises on social media Sunday. In a Facebook post late Sunday, the Saint Frances Animal Center said that Alsup was rescuing all the "leftover" pets "” the dogs and cats the shelter couldn't seem to hand off to anyone else.
"It's all true. Tony swooped in at 4am Wednesday morning to pick up our "˜leftovers' "” the dogs with blocky heads, the ones with heartworm," the center wrote on Facebook. "The ones no one else will ever take. And he got them to safety. Not the most conventional evacuation, but surely the one with the most heart."
Many people are praising Tony for his hard work and his "NO ONE LEFT BEHIND" mantra.
Here's how to help his good works. It's a Paypal account set up to help him fund his trips. Currently he could use help with fuel.
Can you help Tony?
It looks like him and many other rescuers could use our help.
Dogs rescued in NC during FlorenceThe owner was seeking medical attention when this was taken. Still, not a good look! -------------------------------------------------- THIS REALLY TICKS ME OFF!!!! "Rescued six dogs in Leland, NC, after the owner LEFT THEM locked in an outdoor cage that filled with flood water that was rapidly rising during Hurricane Florence. We got them out, but by the time we left, the water was so high that they would have drowned. BRING YOUR PETS WITH YOU!" - Marcus DiPaola Thankfully for Marcus DiPaola, these dogs were rescued!
Posted by Chris Nelson CBS58 Meteorologist on Monday, September 17, 2018