Posted on Fri, Sep. 02, 2005

M O R E   N E W S   F R O M   

 €  Flood

 €  Charitable Organizations

Pets and other animals are Hurricane Katrina¹s victims

By Patricia Horn

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

At the Humane Society of the United States call center, frantic calls are
coming in from New Orleans pet owners: Their animal is stuck in an
apartment. Can the Humane Society go in and get them out?

In Slidell, La., animal rescue workers are trying to find and care for
animals left behind after their owners evacuated the hard-hit area.

New Orleans and Louisiana evacuees are arriving in Houston and Baton Rouche,
La., with pets and need a place to put them.

Yes, tens of thousands of people are hungry and thirsty, stressed and dying
and they desparately need help. But so do the flood-ravaged region's dogs
and cats, zoo animals, wildlife, exotic pets, horses, chickens and pigs,
says Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States in
Washington.

The government and other nonprofits handle the people, said Pacelle, but
they do not handle animals. That is left to the Humane Society and other
similar organizations.

"We are getting a frantic resonse. My animal is at 1700 Charles Street on
the third floor. Will you get get her? We absolutely want to. But we need
access to some of these areas and we don't have access to the city of New
Orleans," he said.

Normally, the answer would be "yes."

But at the moment, the Humane Society is not allowed into New Orleans, said
Pacelle. He's asked, but the society, which has a disaster arm, can't get
in.

Like the Humane Society, other animal-care and rights groups are responding,
but the scope of the disaster is huge.

The main Humane Society in New Orleans did move its animals out in advance,
said Pacelle, but other individuals, other animal shelters, farms, roadside
zoos across the Gulf Coast did not.

Sunday morning, before the hurricane hit, the Louisiana SPCA moved more than
260 animals to the Houston SPCA, according to the Houston SPCA Web site. The
Houston SPCA is now accepting animals from those who are staying in Houston
area shelters. The Humane Society is helping with that.

To handle this influx, the Houston SPCA is asking for donations to cover the
cost of caring for the extra animals, as well as for items, such as
newspapers, rolls of paper towels, travel crates for animals, bowls, gallon
bottles of water, first-aid kits and cat litter.

The Humane Society has set up rescue teams in Mississippi, Baton Rouge, and
Houston, he said. "We have teams ready to go and have others from all parts
of the country ready," he said. The society already has 60 people in the
Gulf States and expects to send far more. It has trained hundreds of staff
and volunteers in disaster relief and animal rescue, Pacella said.

To aid this effort, the society has already raised more than $1 million and
hopes to raise $10 million. It is setting up a bigger call center to handle
both donations and the pleas for help.

A group called Noah's Wish, a nonprofit based in Placerville, Calif., has
about 400 people in Slidell, La.

Patricia Jones, spokeswoman for the group, says that the group's founder and
director, Terri Crisp, is working with local animal control officials in
Slidell, which was walloped by Katrina. They've set up a temporary shelter
in a warehouse, "to be able to house hundreds of animals, cats and dogs."
Behind the warehouse, they are putting up tents and chain-link dog runs,
where they can house larger dogs,

"Right now, there's a huge problem in Slidell because of a lot of stray
animals running around. Law enforcement is cutting dogs loose that were tied
up in kennels. About 200 have been rounded up," she said.

The volunteers are going out in rescue teams to pull animals out of houses.
Twenty-five veterinarians are coming in to volunteer their services. The
ultimate goal is to reunite the pets with their owners.

Crisp and her volunteers got down to Slidell on Tuesday. They are taking
time off from their jobs and paying their own airfare.

"Right now in Slidell, the amount of work to be done is just overwhelming.
The e-mails that are coming in [from pet owners] are just heartbreaking.
They're mostly from people who've been evacuated... and are desperately
trying to find any information. They're desperate, frantic," said Jones.

In Mississippi, Pacelle is concerned with pets and also farm animals. The
state, he said, processed 753 million chickens last year. It was the
fourth-biggest poultry producer in the country. That doesn't speak to the
hogs, cattle, laying hend, horses and other farm aniamsl. The state has many
factory farms that hurricanes or side tornados hut when they blew apart
buildings, he said.

"We are trying to identify areas for sanctuaries," he said. "And identify
what the most urgent needs are... We are not talking about 300 pets. We are
taking about tens of thousands of animals."

Not only is rescue an issue, rebuilding is as well. Many shelters, like the
one in Gulfport, Miss., were destroyed. Money is needed to rebuild them and
the $10 million he hopes to raise won't cover that.

"Every day I worry about what is not happening. We are not moving fast
enough to save the animals in distress at this very momeht. They are hungry
and stressed and dehydrated and hot and need relief," he said.

Noah's Wish and the Humane Society have worked in other hurricanes and
disasters. The Humane Society, for example, also deployed staff to the
tsunami-hit areas.

Pacelle says the Society has been working for a decade with FEMA and other
agencies on disaster plans for animals. It has made proess, said Pacella,
but not enough.

"We do coordinate with FEMA and with other federal agencies. We are
recognized in this domain. Their responsiblity is people. They have not had
a history of helping animals during a disaster. Not that they are not
concerned, but it is not a priority of federal agencies."