By Ronald C. Desnoyers, Jr.
I was conducting search and rescue in New Orleans on Saturday, October 1. The area assigned to me had flooded badly, and rescue workers could not gain access until Friday, September 30, when a team reported that there were many animals there and they were in bad shape. Pairing up with a food-and-water team, my partner and I went to the area, which was very close to the Superdome, and began searching on foot.
Animals were everywhere. Some were in relatively good condition, and others were extremely emaciated and weak. There were animals still trapped in homes. Approximately half way through our day, as we were walking, we heard loud cries coming from under a house. I looked under the structure, and could hear the cries, but could not see where they were coming from. It sounded as if they were coming from the rear of the home.
I got a flashlight and went to the back of the home. I saw a plastic garbage bag approximately 10 feet under the house. It was moving. I could not reach the garbage bag, so I looked around and found a broomstick lying in the backyard. When combined with the length of my arm, it was just long enough to reach under the house, slide the broomstick through the handle of the garbage bag, and lift the bag off the ground and pull it to safety.
When I got the bag out, I found a 6-day-old pit bull puppy inside. I knew from my past experiences that the puppy would not survive if I did not get it some food and medical attention immediately.
I called dispatch, and asked what the best course of action would be. That's when the real headaches started. Since the state of Louisiana had stopped allowing rescuers to bring non-critical animals into the Lamar-Dixon temporary shelter in Gonzales, I was instructed to bring the puppy to Delgado Community College in New Orleans, where an emergency clinic was established. I drove to Delgado, but the clinic was no longer in operation. So I called dispatch back, and was instructed to take the puppy to a veterinary clinic outside the city.
I went to the clinic and spoke with the vet. He said he would not see the puppy unless some sort of payment was made; he also said that, if I liked, he would euthanize the puppy for me. I tried to get him to treat the puppy by offering to leave a copy of my license and promising to get payment to him as soon as I returned to Rhode Island. He turned down the offer. A woman standing in the waiting room gave the receptionist $20 so that the vet would examine the puppy and another dog that needed medical attention.
The vet proceeded to examine the puppy, and found him to be in excellent health. He gave me some puppy milk and told me to feed him every 2-3 hours. He also said I could probably bring the puppy to a local animal shelter, and he put me in contact with the facility.
I drove approximately 50 miles to reach the shelter. When I arrived I was told that the shelter could help me out with the other animals in my truck, but that they did not have a veterinary staff qualified to take care of the puppy. Another volunteer suggested I take the animals to the Winn-Dixie, where a temporary shelter had been established.
At this point my partner and I had been driving around for about five hours trying to find a qualified and willing person to care for the puppy. When I got to Winn-Dixie, they took all of the animals, but recommended that I take the puppy with me. According to the vet on site, the puppy would not survive because of the conditions at the shelter.
It was getting close to 6 p.m., and I decided right then to care for the puppy myself. I went to Wal-Mart and purchased puppy milk, nursing bottles, and baby bottles so I could feed the puppy every three hours or so. I pulled over into a parking lot, fed the puppy so he would quiet down, and made my way back to Lamar-Dixon. Since non-critical animals were not allowed into the facility, I parked in the very far corner, and my partner and I took shifts caring for him.
Thinking it was best to try to get the puppy out of Louisiana, a few of us tried to arrange for a veterinarian to issue a health certificate so I could fly him home and continue caring for him. Meanwhile, I changed my flight plans so that I could fly the puppy home as soon as possible.
After trying for three days, we were unable to get a health certificate. I went to some of the vets whom I had become friendly with at the triage centers in the city, but they could not help. They recommended that I not fly the puppy because of his age. (His eyes weren't even open.)
Finally, I was able to arrange ground transport through the vets with a legitimate nonprofit that was leaving Lamar-Dixon on Monday, October 3. A woman with the nonprofit agreed to drive the puppy to her home in Ohio, where she will foster the animal until we can meet again and make the handoff. We have made tentative plans to meet late next week in Pittsburgh, where I will take possession of the puppy again and care for him. She told me the pup is doing fine.
Because the beagle I currently own is dog-aggressive, I unfortunately will not be able to keep the puppy, but I have already been hitting up the faculty and staff at the university where I am a graduate student in criminal justice. The administrators at the school have assured me that they will do everything they can to help find this puppy a new home.
Ronald C. Desnoyers, Jr., a graduate student in criminal justice at Roger Williams University, lives in Cranston, Rhode Island. His thesis is on animal cruelty in Rhode Island. An experienced animal handler, Desnoyers volunteered for two separate animal rescue missions to New Orleans.
