As Hurricane Florence bore down on the mid-Atlantic coast, most residents were forced to evacuate to avoid the devastating wind and rain. Yet as everyone packed what they could and headed away from the eye, one man gassed up his old yellow school bus and started driving directly into the storm.
That man is Tony Alsup, and he’s the hero who rescued 64 helpless shelter animals – all by himself.
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Tony is a professional truck driver from Greenback, Tennessee. He’s a tremendous animal lover and he hopes to be able to open his own shelter someday. For now, though, he’s committed to putting himself in harm’s way in order to rescue the forgotten animals who would ordinarily be left behind to die.
“I’m like, look, these are lives too,”Tony explained. “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.â€
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This isn’t even the first time Tony has rescued animals during a hurricane.
In 2017, after watching a news program about how much shelters struggle to accommodate abandoned animals, Tony headed to Texas ahead of Hurricane Harvey to see what he could do to help.
“I thought, well […] I’ll just go buy a bus.â€
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Tony did indeed buy a bus, which he then converted to accommodate dozens of pet crates. A sign on the side of it reads EARS – Emergency Animal Rescue & Shelter. He’s since used the bus to help animals during Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Tony keeps people updated on his progress on his Facebook page. He also accepts Paypal donations to gas up the bus, and his grateful fans seem more than willing to pitch in.
“NO ONE LEFT BEHIND,†he wrote in one post as he began his trip towards South Carolina.
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Over the course of the next 48 hours, Tony made stops at the Humane Society of North Myrtle Beach, the Dillon County and Orangeburg shelters, and Saint Frances Animal Center in Georgetown, South Carolina.
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 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.
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After “swooping in,” Tony drove his rescues to his friend, Angela Eib-Maddux, in Foley, Alabama. Angela runs a private dog shelter there, so the animals were all fed, bathed, and given soft blankets to sleep on. The pair then arranged for foster homes for each animal, with some dogs and cats getting adopted on the spot!
The next stop on Tony’s compassionate journey is Wilmington, North Carolina. Just as long as the roads are open, Tony plans to navigate his own personal “Noah’s Ark” to find the unloved souls who need him most.
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Our hats are off to you, Tony! Thank you for helping those who cannot help themselves. The world needs more Tonys!
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