HSUS Disaster Teams To Reach Stranded Pets in New Orleans

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HSUS Disaster Teams To Reach Stranded Pets in New Orleans

 

 

 

 

 

 

In New Orleans earlier this week, Al Duvernay lowers Rusty the dog into his

boat. An HSUS Team was expected to be granted access to the city on Sunday to

help rescue stranded pets. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

 

September 3, 9:16 p.m.

 

For animals stranded in New Orleans, more help has finally arrived.

 

Members of the HSUS National Disaster Animal Response Team (DART) were

expected to enter New Orleans alongside staff members of the Louisiana Society

for

the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (LSPCA) on Sunday morning, September 4.

It’

s a major turning point for pets and other animals stranded in the city,

which had been closed off to our animal rescuers by federal and state

authorities

who had been closely controlling access in attempts to handle the confusion

and danger that has beset the city.

 

As HSUS rescuer Diane Webber put it earlier in the day, “It may be too late

for some. It may be just in time for others.â€

 

Pleas for Help

 

The desperate calls being taken at the HSUS’s emergency call center in

Washington show there is no time to lose: Untold numbers of companion animals,

left

behind by caregivers who could not take them along, wait -- in bathrooms,

attics, bedrooms, office suites, hospital corridors -- wherever their desperate

owners believed they could survive a few days on their own. The lucky ones have

food and water for a few days. But their luck won’t hold for too many days

longer. 

 

“Please break in when you get somebody over there,†one caller to the HSUS

hotline pled. The caller was one of many forced to leave their animals behind

as they fled Katrina’s approach. “Please help, my neighbor was feeding the

cats but she fled when the looting began,†a second caller implored. “Could

you

just help get some medicine to my pet?†another person asked. “I will get my

keys to your team,†a man told one HSUS responder. “Just get in there and

get

my cat, please.â€

 

HSUS responders also heard from people associated with the situations at

Lindy Boggs Hospital and Mercy Hospital, where dozens of staff members’ pets

were

being housed on the upper levels. At one of the hospitals, reportedly, there

is just a single doctor caring for all of the animals; according to callers, he

committed himself to staying behind to provide care after rescue workers

evacuated patients and staff members late last week.

 

A Galvanizing Rescue

 

In the meantime, DART team members in both Mississippi and Louisiana have

been working to provide relief and assistance to animals and those seeking to

help them. HSUS personnel helped to set up shelter/transfer stations in Jackson

and two other locations in Mississippi, and are now rescuing animals in the

hardest-hit areas, including Jackson County. In Louisiana, we’ve been working

at

the LSPCA’s animal transfer/housing station in Gonzales.

 

Late Friday night, HSUS rescuers, working with members of the Humane Society

of South Mississippi, picked up 42 cats and 89 dogs in Gulfport, Mississippi—

survivors of a 30-foot storm surge that hit the facility where they had been

housed. The animals were driven to a staging area and temporary shelter in

Jackson, where they were evaluated and treated. Eventually, these fortunate

animals

will be transferred to the care of animal shelters around the country.

 

Calls of Compassion

 

Those staffing the HSUS telephones have also answered calls from thousands of

compassionate people, offering practical assistance, volunteering to go to

the impact zones, and adding their funds to those already collected by The HSUS

since Katrina’s ruinous strike -- funds that will be poured into our relief

efforts as they unfold in the days ahead.

 

More than a few of those who contacted The HSUS wanted to know about

Snowball, the dog taken from a little boy trying to board a bus at the New

Orleans

Superdome last Thursday.  Unfortunately, his fate, like that of so many other

beloved companion animals, hangs in the balance.