Story highlights Hallie Hill Animal Sanctuary is home to more than 200 dogs and cats riding out the storm

Evacuating these animals, who are sick, elderly and previously traumatized, would be risky

(CNN) Jennifer Middleton is riding out Hurricane Florence alongside her friends Westy, Copper, Duchess, Queenie and Braveheart.

Middleton, executive director of the Hallie Hill Animal Sanctuary, says she and her charges -- about 157 dogs and 51 cats -- will be staying put and weathering the storm together, even though they're in a mandatory evacuation area along the South Carolina coast,

She says evacuation would be devastating for many of the animals, many of whom are sick, elderly or were traumatized and abused before they came to the sanctuary. It would be risky for her staff, too, if the anxious animals started to bite during the evacuation process.

She looks at Jesse, a Chow mix whose owner kept him in a 6-by-8-foot plywood box for about two years. There was no top, but the sides were so high he couldn't see out. When someone looked inside, he growled at them.

She can't imagine putting him in a box now to transport him away from Florence.

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