Animal news and relief efforts for hurricane Katrina victims.

Legislation would require pet to be included in evacuations

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal disaster grants to state and local governments should be conditioned on how they accommodate pets in their evacuation plans, say lawmakers disturbed that some Hurricane Katrina victims refused to leave home because they couldn't take their animals with them.

"I cannot help but wonder how many more people could have been saved had they been able to take their pets," Rep. Tom Lantos, D-California, said Thursday.

Lantos and Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut, and Barney Frank, D-Massaschusetts, are sponsoring a bill that would require that state and local disaster preparedness plans required for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding include provisions for household pets and service animals.

More than 6,000 pets have been saved in Mississippi and Louisiana, said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, but tens of thousands more could still be in New Orleans alone. Texas, he said, has been better at allowing people to take their pets with them ahead of Hurricane Rita but a formal policy is still needed.

"We cannot rely on individual acts of compassion," Markarian said.

Holly Hazard, executive director of the Doris Day Animal League, said there are 4,000 outstanding requests to rescue pets more than three weeks after Katrina hit.

While the legislation may draw attention to the issue, it doesn't "have any real meat in it," said Sara Spaulding, a spokeswoman for the American Humane Association. She said uniform protocols on rescuing and sheltering animals, for example, should be formulated at the federal level with consultation from animal welfare groups.http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/22/katrina.pets.ap/index.html

Transport Provided to Anywhere - Room Desperately Needed!

If you're able to foster any of the animal victims of Hurricane Katrina -- there is transportation provided, with people ready and waiting to drive the pets, for upwards of 200 dogs and 150 cats so far rescued from the devastation of hurricane Catrina.

What these animals need is a place to stay: Kennels, boarding, vets offices, shelters with any extra space, foster homes and rescues. Even one or two open kennels would greatly help. From what we know, all animals have been vaccinated and are in good health. There are dogs and cats of every breed and size. Some are in groups of two, three or four, hailing from the same family, while some are solitary.

ANY KENNEL SPACE AVAILABLE CAN CERTAINLY BE USED.

Drivers are willing ! to move these animals ANYWHERE they need to go. Absolutely anywhere. The current safe houses for these animals are being inundated and some of these pets will have to be euthanized if they are not moved to make room for the incoming animals. Please feel free to pass on this information everywhere. Every forum, every list, every community.

REMEMBER THESE ANIMALS WILL BE TRANSPORTED TO YOU. If you know anyone, anywhere, that is willing to take in even one cat or dog, please have them contact Lynda at the information provided below.

They are also asking for ANY kind of donations for the animals - money, food, bedding, water, etc.

Please Contact Lynda V. at:
203 515 3024 (cell)
Home: 203 227 5308
Email: [email protected]

Plea for help from an animal control officer in Baton Rouge, LA.

From: Dez Crawford
Hi folks...
An appeal for help

We are running on empty here in South Louisiana and Gulf Coast animal rescue work and need volunteer help!

Veterinarians and vet techs are needed urgently at the Lamar-Dixon Center in Gonzalez, Louisiana. We also need vets and techs to relieve the staff at the LSU Hurricane Animal Shelter. Animals arriving at Lamar Dixon -- those most recently rescued -- need people experienced with rehydration and re-feeding, also need rehydration supplies (fluids, etc) and refeeding supplies (Science Diet a/d, etc.) Contact Dr. Thistlewaite at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, 225-578-9900.

If you are an experienced animal rescue worker, shelter worker, shelter volunteer, or an experienced amateur animal handler who is willing to scrub cages and so forth, you are needed for animal care at Lamar-Dixon. They are desperate for help. This is get-down-and-dirty work. Call volunteer coordinator Cathy Wells at 225-772-8609; 225-342-1126; or 225-755-1484. Non-professional volunteers, please realize that this is VERY hard, dirty work. Not a situation to bring little kids to cuddle the kittens. There will be time for that later. Right now we just need the animals washed, clean cages, feeding and watering.

Please also contact any professional humane officers you know or your local animal control agency and urge them to send at least one officer to help with out efforts. These people can contact the Louisiana Animal Control Association at 225-772-3394.

Hundreds of pets rescued and added to a catalog maintained by the Louisiana State Veterinary Association

For the pets left behind after Hurricane Katrina, relief is on the way, but it's a race against time.
Rescue workers are worried most about pets locked inside homes and whose food and water supply may have run out. For them, rescue is their only chance of survival.
"It's one at a time, and it's fairly slow work," said Michael Mountain, President and CEO of Best Friends Animal Society, one of the first animal organizations allowed into the city to rescue pets.
Since Tuesday the Humane Society has rescued 90 dogs and 34 cats. Mountain estimates his group has rescued between 800 and 900 animals since entering the city on August 30.
As soon as the pet arrives at a shelter it is photographed and checked for ID tags. The health of each pet is evaluated, and fluids and medical treatment is administered as needed.
The information is put into a database that pet owners and rescue groups are feeding information into and that the Louisiana State Veterinary Association is maintaining. Efforts are then made to contact the owner of the pet. Unclaimed pets will be sent to area shelters and made available for adoption. More from CNN http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/08/pet.rescue/index.html

Animals left behind

Right now the pets aren't being rescued by FEMA or the other regular rescue workers, only by pet rescue groups who are restricted by FEMA... they are slowly starving to death!!! That has changed as of tonight and after our afternoon campaign just prior to the decision, calling everyone who would listen.
[Update: 20:10 EST 9-8-05 Success!!! Thank you FEMA, especially the field workers....The decision: The national guard will assist pet organizations' efforts AND allow people to evacuate WITH their pets!!!!!! More information can be found here http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/8/125125/4588

Evening Update, September 7

As reported by Sandy Monterose of the ASPCA?s National Outreach department, ASPCA staffers have teamed up with others from organizations such as American Humane Association, Spring Farm CARES (NY) and the Houston SPCA, under the leadership of the Louisiana SPCA, to take to the flooded streets of New Orleans searching for abandoned pets. Working on a grid system, the five teams of three rescuers each waded through waist-high, fetid water, pulling boats loaded with equipment and supplies, successfully avoiding injury on fallen tree limbs and downed power lines. This hot, sticky, frustrating day netted 25 cats, 14 dogs, one pet snake and a gentleman who been overlooked by earlier rescuers. (Land and water rescues totaled 140 animals on Tuesday, and they expect to retrieve 200 on Wednesday as more of the water recedes.) http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=hurricane_diary

Volunteers will soon be needed

In the coming weeks, animal shelters in the Gulf Coast area will need volunteers with a wide range of skills. Shelters in other parts of the country will need help, too, as they send teams of trained shelter staff to assist with relief efforts. http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=hurricane_volunteer