Noah’s Ark? More like Tony’s bus!

In all seriousness though, this Greenback, Tennessee man who goes by the name of Tony Alsup is a true hero and advocate for animals. Especially when it comes to natural disasters, his motto truly is no man left behind.

When hurricanes like Florence and Harvey struck and shelters were not able to take some animals, Alsup decided to take initiative and build his own shelter. He bought a bus, turned it into an animal shelter on wheels, and picked up all of the “leftover” animals during the disasters.

According to The Washington Post, Alsup traveled all the way from Tennessee (where he lives) to South Carolina to save over 60 animals which included 53 dogs and 11 cats as of September 16, 2019.

The seats were ripped out of the bus to make room for the animals. The side of the outside of the bus read in big letters, “Emergency Animal Rescue Shelter.”

Alsup talked to TWP all about the trip and why he did what he did.

“I’m like, look, these are lives too,” he said. “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.”

“I thought, well what can I do?” he continued. “I’ll just go buy a bus.” Seems like a pretty good solution to us.

The man has been rescuing animals with his school bus since Hurricane Harvey tore apart Texas in 2017. He got the idea when he saw on the news that animal shelters were running out of room for every animal during natural disasters.

He thought this was a perfect opportunity to help, since he aspires to open his very own animal shelter one day in the future.

Initially, he wanted to transport the animals to vacant shelters, but he knew he could not put them in a semitrailer. So that is where the school bus came in.

Since then, he has continued to help during other hurricanes such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria. He did not have a bus for Maria though — instead, he focused on feeding horses. His latest attempt at saving animals’ lives has been during Florence.

The bus was perfectly set up and ready to go for every animal that was going to enter. Kettles were stacked on top of each other to the ceiling to ensure maximum space and there was food, water, leashes and toys laid across the aisle.

During his trips, he also utilized Facebook to let people know that he still had room to take on more animals, writing, “NO ONE LEFT BEHIND.” He urged people to point him in the right direction to find more animals in need.

“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 Saint Frances Animal Center wrote on Facebook, praising Tony.

We’d say Tony is on the right path to opening his own animal shelter. He is saving lives, a true hero.

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Source: Animal Channel