Thousands of dogs and cats abandoned in the Gulf disaster

Spencer Warren writes an eloquent and moving message to VFR about an aspect of the hurricane disaster that many people might not have thought about. (Note: Mr. Warren’s message was written last week, so the Honore order to rescue pets went out the week before last. All government personnel since last week have been allowed to help animals, though initially this wasn’t the case.)

According to the Humane Society, perhaps tens of thousands of pets in the disaster area are on the verge of death. Thousands have been rescued by the many private volunteer rescue organizations that are down there at their own expense—Humane Society, BestFriends.org, Noah’s Wish and many other organizations. I know a veterinarian who hired three vans and drove down with other doctors and vet techs (nurses) last Friday evening, filled with food and other provisions that we all provided.

Anyone who knows dogs and cats recognizes that each is an individual, that they have feelings at least as strong as humans. It requires more understanding from us to appreciate the elemental way in which they express those feelings—including fear, hunger, love and gratitude. One dog, tied beneath a house that was on fire, was rescued and wildly licked his savior as he was removed from the flames. There are many such stories. But many, if not most, humans, including apparently FEMA and the Louisiana Governor’s office, denigrate pets. This is to the shame of the human race. These humans are the “mutts,” not the precious animals they demean and denigrate, who offer only love and companionship to the human race.

The LA National Guard still is blocking these private rescue groups from entering New Orleans to try and rescue more pets. A lady in St. Bernard’s Parish (a suburb, I think) said local police entered her home and shot her dogs, one dragging himself bleeding toward her as she was packing to leave. However, Gen. Honore on Friday directed the troops under his command to rescue pets and provided cages, etc for them. Some authorities are disobeying orders to rescue pets, others are leaving food and water and alerting the private groups so they can try and make the rescue.

These thousands were abandoned by humans, and have been largely forgotten by the news media; until recently the various governments would do nothing to help the rescuers and often obstructed their efforts. This is another chapter in the gruesome catalogue of human evil that is part of the aftermath of Katrina.

In future disaster planning, pets and other animals must be given a higher priority. Only a soulless nation would leave them helpless.

Here is a story, from the San Francisco Chronicle, about the victims of the disaster who decided to stay, at risk of their own lives, rather than abandon their animals:

Pet-rescue policy needed, Humane Society head says
Current rules forced owners to leave animals behind
Marsha Ginsburg, San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, September 16, 2005

Thousands of pets, and perhaps some of their owners, would be alive today if the federal government had a plan in place for rescuing animals after disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the head of the nation’s largest animal welfare organization said Thursday.

In the wake of criticism about the government’s lack of coordination during one of the nation’s worst disasters, officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Humane Society of the United States are scheduled to appear at a joint press conference in New Orleans today to discuss the issue of animal rescue. Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle said he planned to call on the federal government to come up with the nation’s first animal rescue plan.

“Government policies forced people to make an awful choice—to be rescued and leave behind their pets or to stay in a stricken city and risk their lives,” said Pacelle, who was in San Francisco for a fundraiser before returning to New Orleans. “We want to see a rescue policy that recognizes the incredible bond between people and their pets.”

He said the government’s approach after Hurricane Katrina was to place a priority on rescuing people over pets. FEMA and the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the policy.

Forcing people to agree to be rescued without their animals “fundamentally misreads the psychology at work of 60 percent of households in America (who have pets),” Pacelle said. In New Orleans, he said, many owners decided to stay rather than leave their animals behind.

The national Humane Society has led the rescue of some 5,000 abandoned animals. There may be as many as 50,000 stranded pets in Louisiana alone, Pacelle said. [cont.]

And here the London Times tells about the pets that have been rescued:

Volunteers care for thousands of pets who beat all the odds
Animal rescue groups are facing the biggest catastrophe they have known as thousands of exhausted and emaciated pets are being rescued
Jacqui Goddard in Gonzales, Louisiana

THREE weeks ago they had families, laps to curl up on and reasons to purr or wag their tails. Now thousands of cats and dogs rescued from New Orleans gaze dolefully from row upon row of cages in a gigantic exhibition centre, wondering where the good times went.

They are emaciated, exhausted and afflicted by sores. Some have bandaged paws. The critically ill are hooked up to drips. Wayne Pacelle, the president of the Humane Society of the United States, said: “The scale of this takes your breath away. It buckles your knees.” The society, along with scores of other rescue groups, is facing the biggest animal catastrophe it has known. “The evacuation doomed these animals to dehydration and starvation,” he said. “We rescued people, but we left their pets behind to die. Amazingly, we are finding more alive every day.”

The Lamarr Dixon Expo Centre in Gonzales, 35 miles from New Orleans, has become a miniature city for the four-legged victims of Hurricane Katrina. Its five giant barns usually play host to show horses. Now each stall is stacked with cages that hold about 2,000 dogs and cats rescued from homes, rooftops and flooded streets. Another 5,000 pets have been sent from here to shelters across America. A further 1,100 are housed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and 500 more in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Some went to San Francisco on board two Boeing 737 passenger jets chartered by a Texan oilman at a cost of $1 million (£553,000). Mr Pacelle said: “When you looked down the aisle, all you could see were snouts and whiskers and tails. They even got in-flight service.” As fast as pets are moved on from Gonzales, more arrive. Each evening a fleet of at least 20 small lorries bearing hundreds of animals pulls up outside Barn 5. Their withered passengers are coaxed or carried off. Some are so weak that they cannot stand. Kim Johnston, a helper, said: “We found a dog covered in 2in of faeces. He was skin and bone. I thought he was a brown pitbull; when we washed him, he came up a dalmatian.” Tending the menagerie is so traumatic that a counselling tent has been set up for the 1,000 volunteers.

The “exotics” section in Barn 1 houses an albino Burmese python, a cockatiel who cries: “Hello darlin’,” and an Amazon parakeet who announces that his name is Sambo and that he is a good boy.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 20, 2005 10:52 PM | Send