I am new to this group  but I can't blame them for not wanting to leave
their pets or their homes.  I remember having to evacuate do to tornadoes.
I remember the guard at the shelter telling me I would have to leave my 3
cats in the car  Well I hate to say this all he remember is seeing stars for
about 2 days.  I live in Florida now and thankfully their are pet shelters
nearby but I worked hurricanes here in Florida and some people just can't
believe that it has happened to them.   I found so many dogs and cats that
had gotten out of there homes due to damage.  One thing is make sure your
pets have the tracking chips in them it is worth the money.   I have been in
tears every time I see an animal that needs rescuing out there do to
stupidity.  I have volunteered but FEMA has so much red tape it is
ridiculous I am still waiting for the OK to go.  It took several days before
HSUS teams to even get in there because of FEMA but here is the latest that
HSUS has posted thru email.

"It's truly a race against the clock.  Our teams are working feverishly to
rescue as many animals as possible and get them out of the watery cesspool
left behind by Hurricane Katrina."

-HSUS President & CEO
Wayne Pacelle
After initially being blocked from entering the most devastated areas in
Louisiana and Mississippi, HSUS Disaster Animal Response Teams (DART) have
been working around the clock to help save stranded and sick animals.

What we are finding is truly heartbreaking - animals trapped in flooded
houses, caregivers wandering the streets desperately searching for their
beloved pets, and nearly destroyed animal shelters where the surviving
animals have spent days keeping their heads above water in their cages.

But this is why we are here and why we are counting on our supporters to
help spread the word about our disaster efforts on the Gulf Coast.

Block after block, our teams are entering homes and apartments, sometimes
forced to break into them, searching for stranded animals. Yesterday in
Mississippi, one of our DART teams rescued a dog who had been washed into
someone's attic; the storm surge had stranded the animal. The woman who
owned the house was elderly; she had slipped some food and water into the
attic for the dog, but hadn't been able to go upstairs to carry him out.

We are finding and rescuing more animals as each hour passes - more than a
thousand so far - but with many more thousands needing our help. In the past
two days, we've focused on these activities:

 a.. Marshalling all of our resources to provide relief for these animals.
We have 125 people and 39 support vehicles in Louisiana, and more than 10
emergency personnel and 17 support vehicles in Mississippi.  The call is out
for many more rescuers to converge on these two states before it is too
late.

 b.. Calling on ALL federal, state, and local responding agencies to help
provide animal rescue assistance immediately. Even though we've been able to
put hundreds of people in the field, we worry they may not be enough.

 c.. Logging thousands of telephone calls through our HSUS call center, as
well as responding to thousands of emails.  Staff members in every section
at headquarters dropped their normal duties to assist in the response to
Katrina, searching for boats, trucks, crates, carriers, supplies, food, and
other essential items for transport and operations in the impact zones of
Louisiana and Mississippi.

 d.. Establishing our online Disaster Center at www.hsus.org featuring
critical updates on our relief efforts, video and slideshow footage, and
ways that individuals can help us save even more animals affected by
Katrina. We're encouraging all our supporters to visit the website often and
take a moment to let others know about our emergency response.
In the days ahead, we will be expanding our large-scale rescue of the animal
victims of Hurricane Katrina. In light of the devastation we have witnessed,
our rescue efforts cannot come fast enough. Again, thank you for your recent
donation and please take a moment to tell a friend about our efforts.

Sincerely,

Laura Bevan
Incident Commander
HSUS National Disaster Animal Response Team
Jackson, Mississippi