John Rourke describes animal rescue efforts after ‘thousands’ of pets left by migrants at border
John Rourke, CEO of Blue Line Moving, describes his dog rescue efforts at the border and the impact of trash and stray animals left by migrants on residents.
U.S. Army veteran John Rourke sounded the alarm over the horrors he's witnessed while cleaning up border towns the past three years, saying the crisis has spiraled under President Biden's watch and turned some parts of Texas into a "third world" area.
The CEO of Florida-based Blue Line Moving started his cleanups in 2021 after learning about the problem of trash left behind by migrants crossing illegally over the border. During each trip he would also see hundreds of stray dogs and cats in every condition imaginable milling about these towns that were abandoned by migrants.
Troubled by what he was witnessing, Rourke reached out to Florida-based animal rescue group, Big Dog Ranch Rescue, to do something about it. They have now conducted three rescue missions and rescued 189 dogs in Eagle Pass, McAllen, Colony Ridge and Del Rio with the help of local animal rescue groups like Saving Hope Animal Rescue. They completed their most recent mission in Del Rio and Eagle Pass this week.
Rourke shared how he's seen "thousands" of dogs during these trips and finds some of them in horrific conditions.
U.S. Army veteran and CEO of Blue Line Moving John Rourke shared about his animal rescue efforts to save abandoned pets at southern border. [Courtesy John Rourke] (John Rourke)
"It's unbelievable. I've never seen so many dogs in my life. Abandoned dogs, specifically in Colony Ridge," he told Fox News Digital.
"We're literally finding dogs in garbage bags, you know, on the side of the road. But we found a dog with its mouth taped shut, a dog where someone threw a boiling pot of oil on this dog. It's just horrible things that are being done to these dogs, which makes it even crazier, because now you have people that are living here in this country that will do those kinds of things to animals and they're living among us," he lamented.
Migrants will often bring dogs with them for protection, but have to leave them once they enter a border facility. Many of the dogs aren't spayed or neutered which just compounds the problem and has made these towns look like a "third world area" he claimed.
"So many animals that froze to death, starved to death, were hit by cars. You know, lots of dead dogs and cats on the sides of the roads. It's turning into like a third-world area where you have dead animals and you have stray animals, and people can't go out on a run. They can't take their kids for a walk. They can't go to a local park. There's literally packs of dogs everywhere," Rourke continued.
7.2M ILLEGALS ENTERED THE US UNDER BIDEN ADMIN, AN AMOUNT GREATER THAN POPULATION OF 36 STATES
Dogs are left in horrible conditions at border towns in Texas, Rourke says. (Photo courtesy of animal welfare group Boots on the Ground) (Boots on the Ground/Fox News Digital)
Rourke served in the U.S. Army for nearly 16 years and believes Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, should activate the Texas National Guard Veterinary Corps to treat, spay and neuter the abandoned pets, calling the situation a "public health crisis."
Additionally, he's frustrated by how politicians and the Biden administration have handled the border crisis.
"It's spiraling. I think the federal government needs to step in. I mean, what the hell are people paying their taxes for?" he asked. "If they can find all this money to fly illegal aliens all over the country and put them up in hotels and give them gift cards, you're telling me they can't find money to take care of these animals and vaccinate these animals and sterilize these animals? Of course, they can. It's just there's no there's no hunger for it right now."
Rourke also says the trash left behind by migrants has devastated these towns. In his most recent cleanup, he said his group collected 23,000 pounds of garbage off a half-mile section of the Rio Grande in Brownsville, Texas.
"I'm a civilian. I am not a millionaire… I do this because no one's doing anything. No one's picking up trash. No one's taking care of these animals, it's horrible. Somebody needs to do something. I'm able to do something, so I do something. And the hope is that more people do something because our politicians are doing nothing," he said.
Clothes, shoes and other trash litters the gound next to the US-Mexico border wall separating Algodones, Mexico, from Yuma, Arizona, on May 16, 2022. (Getty Images)
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Nearly 7.3 million migrants have illegally crossed the southwest border since Biden took office in 2021, a number greater than the population of 36 individual states.
Rourke, a staunch Trump supporter, doesn't see how these border towns can sustain the current influx of migrants if Biden is re-elected.
"Chicago can't sustain it. New York City cannot sustain it. You're telling me Eagle Pass can sustain it? Del Rio, Texas? Brownsville?" he asked in disbelief.
"They close children's schools down to house migrants. People in East Palestine can't get a hotel to stay in… Like, what are we doing here? What are we doing? This should not be this difficult. There's the laws. Follow them," he pressed.