Geneva pet rescue van crashed in Indiana with 63 animals on board. Here’s how locals came to the rescue

Starfish Animal Rescue travels to southeast Kentucky every other weekend to collect dogs and cats that would otherwise be abandoned or euthanized.

Margie Swift, founder of the Geneva-based rescue, said she and volunteers made extra trips because of the extreme cold after receiving photos of dogs and cats that had frozen to death.

“A lot of animals live outdoors out there,” Swift said. “They have limited spay/neuter services there, and the animals get dumped. Shelters across the country are full, and these people have no recourse."

Starfish sent three vehicles during a recent trip. But then it was the rescue that needed rescuing.

At about 4:30 a.m. Jan. 25, the organization’s large Sprinter van crashed on Interstate 65 in Lafayette, Indiana, with 60 dogs and three cats in crates.

Swift said the van went down an embankment and ended up in a field. The Sprinter landed on its right passenger side.

The lucky part is that none of the animals or the driver was hurt.

The bad part – other than the trauma of the crash and the zero-degree weather – is that the nonprofit’s largest transport van was totaled.

Starfish Rescue now has a GoFundMe and is aiming to raise $70,000 to replace the van and 25 plastic crates that broke.

The heartwarming part is the local response of the Humane Society for Greater Lafayette, which collected all the animals and cared for them until the next transports could get them.

Josh Klumpe, executive director of the Humane Society for Greater Lafayette, said the nonprofit contracts with three local government agencies that have their own animal control department.

“Lafayette Animal Control was called out to the scene,” Klumpe said. “They called us and said, ‘We got a van full of animals.’”

A tow truck brought the van to the Humane Society facility at about 5:20 a.m. with all the animals accounted for.

“At that point, my medical staff and kennel lead got to work and started unloading all these animals and getting them into our nice warm facility,” Klumpe said. “Since their crates were broken, we provided as many as we could give up and got them blankets.”

Two other Starfish vans came later that day and picked them all up.

With the last transport of 60 dogs and three cats, Starfish has rescued 330 dogs and cats from four counties in Kentucky so far this year, Swift said.