For the animal victims of Katrina

[Bonnie]

On the ground and behind the scenes:

A quick snapshot of some of the other work underway for the animals


Update: 9/3/05, 6 pm

Several humane groups, including the American Humane, the ASPCA, United Animal Nations, and HSUS have rescue teams in the disaster area and are waiting for clearance from FEMA to enter the most critically affected locations.

Noah's Wish, working with the city of Slidell, Louisiana, has established an emergency animal shelter at 1325 Bayou Lane, near Heritage Park.

The Metro Animal Coalition and several Dallas-area humane groups received 70 animals today from the Southern Animal Foundation shelter in New Orleans.

ASPCA staffers are organizing and overseeing the care of animals evacuated to Austin, Texas.

Update: 9/2/05, 10 am

The Noah's Wish team reached Slidell, Louisiana, and met with emergency management and animal control to begin providing assistance for the animals. Areas of Slidell are still underwater and devastation is widespread.

The ASPCA is providing an invaluable service to Alley Cat Allies and many other groups across the country, as well as those providing assistance on the ground in the Gulf States, by coordinating the response to requests for assistance for pets stranded in homes and feral cat colonies.

Pet Finder is developing a website where the rescue centers can post information ad photos of rescued animals so that they can be reunited with their families.

North Shore Animal League has sent teams into the disaster area to take dogs who are available for adoption from shelters in Florence, Alabama, to the League’s shelter in New York. They will work to find homes for these dogs and, by moving them out of the state, make room in the shelters for rescued pets. They have also dispatched two mobile clinic units with veterinary staff into the area. They are currently awaiting clearance to get into the hardest hit areas.

Paul Berry of Best Friends Animal Society drove to St. Francis Sanctuary in Tylertown, Mississippi, and reports that the sanctuary’s 300 dogs and 100 cats are safe, although the area was hard hit. Paul then headed to the Franklinton, Louisiana, SPCA, where conditions are so bad that they were considering euthanizing the 100-200 animals in the shelter. Paul intervened and arranged to transport the animals to the St. Francis Sanctuary.

The HSUS National Disaster Animal Response Team, United Animal Nations, and American Humane’s response teams are in Jackson, Mississippi, preparing to move into the worst-hit regions.

With outstanding foresight and planning, the Louisiana SPCA, based in New Orleans, evacuated all 300 animals in their shelter to the Houston SPCA before the storm hit. The LSPCA shelter is completely flooded. Read about their emergency shelter in Gonzales, Louisiana, established to house animal victims of the hurricane in another section of this update.



http://www.alleycat.org/ground.html

Hurricane Katrina Animal Rescue Fund

Hurricane Katrina has forced many people to take cover at public evacuation centers. Unfortunately, most public evacuation centers do not allow individuals to take their pets. Many animal shelters have opened their doors to provide temporary shelter for pets that are not permitted with their families in the evacuation facilities. Previous to this hurricane, most animal shelters in this area were already at full capacity, and they need urgent help.

The North Shore Animal League America ERT (Emergency Response Team) knew immediately our help would be needed. Our goal will be to help alleviate the shelter overcrowding by transporting homeless animals to the League.


The magnitude of this hurricane is devastating, and we need to act quickly with your help. Last year, North Shore Animal League America made multiple, successful, rescue missions to the southern states after hurricanes devastated this area of the country in August and September. We know it is possible to make this rescue mission successful; however, we cannot do this without your help. Donate now to help support our Emergency Response Team.

If you are interested in having your company match your donation for the Hurricane Katrina Animal Rescue Fund, please fill out the appropriate matching gift form which can be found at your Human Resources Department. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at 516.883.7900 ext 833.


https://secure.ga3.org/01/support_rescue


To date NSAL has evacuated some 1000 animals in the stricken areas and 53 so far are up for adoption at the shelter in LI. They are also trying to return pets to their owners.

I know human life is more important but I don't see why we can't do both. I was very happy to hear about these organizatons doing this. I can't even imagine the heartbreak of having to leave an animal behind, I couldn't.

 

[Abbey Normal]

Thanks, Bonnie. We made a donation to the American Red Cross, but the bulk of our contribution will be going to one or more of these fine animal welfare agencies. My mother was a big believer in the North Shore Animal League, and I do work for onew of the Humane Society branches, so I like them as well.

 

[Abbey Normal]

Katrina Evacuees Distraught Over Lost Pets By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 38 minutes ago

ATLANTA - As Valerie Bennett was evacuated from a New Orleans hospital, rescuers told her there was no room in the boat for her dogs. She pleaded. "I offered him my wedding ring and my mom's wedding ring," the 34-year-old nurse recalled Saturday. They wouldn't budge. She and her husband could bring only one item, and they already had a plastic tub containing the medicines her husband, a liver transplant recipient, needed to survive.

Such emotional scenes were repeated perhaps thousands of times along the Gulf Coast last week as pet owners were forced to abandon their animals in the midst of evacuation.

In one example reported last week by The Associated Press, a police officer took a dog from one little boy waiting to get on a bus in New Orleans. "Snowball! Snowball!" the boy cried until he vomited. The policeman told a reporter he didn't know what would happen to the dog.

At the hospital, a doctor euthanized some animals at the request of their owners, who feared they would be abandoned and starve to death. He set up a small gas chamber out of a plastic-wrapped dog kennel.

"The bigger dogs were fighting it. Fighting the gas. It took them longer. When I saw that, I said 'I can't do it,'" said Bennett's husband, Lorne.

Valerie Bennett left her dogs with the anesthesiologist, who promised to care for about 30 staff members' pets on the roof of the hospital, Lindy Boggs Medical Center.

"He said he'd stay there as long as he possibly could," Valerie Bennett recalled, speaking from her husband's bedside at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital.

On Saturday afternoon, she said she saw a posting on a Web site called petfinder.com that said the anesthesiologist was still caring for the animals.

Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy, who was helping with relief efforts Saturday, said some evacuees refused to leave without their pets.

"One woman told me 'I've lost my house, my job, my car and I am not turning my dog loose to starve,'" Kennedy said.

Kennedy said he persuaded refugees to get on the bus by telling them he would have the animals taken to an exhibition center.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals picked up two cats and 15 dogs, including one Kennedy found tied up beneath the overpass next to an unopened can of dog food with a sign that read "Please take care of my dog, his name is Chucky."

The fate of pets is a huge but underappreciated cause of anguish for storm survivors, said Richard Garfield, professor of international clinical nursing at New York's Columbia University.

"People in shelters are worried about 'Did Fluffy get out?'" he said. "It's very distressing for people, wondering if their pets are isolated or starving."

The Bennetts had four animals, including two beloved dogs.

They moved to Slidell, La., in July when Valerie took a job at an organ transplant institute connected to Lindy Boggs. Lorne, a former paramedic, is disabled since undergoing a liver transplant in 2001.

On Saturday, as Hurricane Katrina approached, both went to the hospital to help and took all four animals with them.

They fed their guinea pig and left it in its cage in a patient room. They couldn't refill its empty water bottle because the hospital's plumbing failed Sunday, they said. They poured food on the floor for the cat, but again no water.

"I just hope that they forgive me," Valerie Bennett cried.

 

[Annie]

Bonnie and Abbey, you are two of my fav. posters. Nevertheless, my concern is for the humans and while my ability to give is limited, even if it wasn't it would go to the humans, not dogs and cats. Now if I was down there and could save some, I would. But if I was in a boat and it had animals, but a person needed saving, out would go the animal-even if it were my own.

 

[Abbey Normal]

Thanks for the compliment, Kathianne.

We all have a heart for different things. What is important is that we care about something outside of ourselves. What concerns me are people who have no compassion, period. Of course in your boat example the person would be saved.

Millions, if not billions, of dollars are going to be spent on the human victims, because the overwhelming majority of people, and the government, will donate their time and money to those needs. People who care about animals are unfortunately few and far between, so I hope that everyone could be happy that there are some who will care for our furry friends as well.

 

[Bonnie]

I agree kathianne that humans are more important, that said though I am very grateful that in addition to those saving people there are also those helping animals, many people are heartbroken to have to leave their animals behind as would I be.