Disaster Response Snapshot: The Figures Behind the Facts

Animals Rescued   Louisiana & Mississippi

Confirmed Totals to Date: 4,843 Dogs & Cats: 2,783         Horses: 121 Other Animals: 1,939 Updated: September 13, 5:00 p.m.

The Humane Society of the United States is on the ground in the Hurricane Katrina impact zone. Our highly trained Disaster Animal Response Teams have been running search and rescue operations, setting up and staffing temporary shelters, and working with many other organizations to save as many animals' lives as we can.

Here's a quick look at the most recent developments in our Katrina disaster response:

• The HSUS and other groups have rescued nearly 5,000 animals to date from New Orleans and the hardest-hit areas of Mississippi.
  
• More than 200 people have been reunited with their pets as a result of these rescues.
  
• Temporary shelters are fully operational in Gonzales (Louisiana) and Hattiesburg (Mississippi), where rescued animals are examined by medical staff, cleaned, fed, watered, and cared for around the clock. Right now our most pressing need is to transport animals out of the Gonzales shelter to other shelters, to free up room for new rescues. Toward that end, we are now airlifting or otherwise transporting hundreds of animals out of that facility each day.
  
• Hundreds of HSUS disaster response team members, volunteers, and other animal groups are keeping operations running at both sites.
  
• The HSUS has upwards of 300 people on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi. We are deploying about 50 new people each day who have professional animal care and control expertise.
  
• To buy time for stranded animals who elude capture, our rescue teams are setting up "feeding stations" of food and water to keep the animals sustained until another rescue attempt can be made.

We have made tremendous progress, but there is still so much to do. The HSUS's primary concern remains rescuing animals from the disaster areas. As each day passes, the stranded dogs, cats, and other animals go another day without sustenance and care. Our teams are doing everything they can to reach them in time.