By Laura Bevan
Jackson, Mississippi
It' s been two days since my last report and now the response effort to help the animals in Mississippi endangered by Hurricane Katrina is taking off.
Two nights ago, our rescue teams rushed to Gulfport to remove 130 dog and cats from the Humane Society of South Mississippi animal shelter. These animals survived after the shelter was flooded by the combination of a storm surge with an overflow discharge of human waste from the sewage treatment plant next door. Some swam in their cages for hours, somehow managing to keep their heads above water. Others were not so lucky.
Team members worked as quickly as possible to load the dogs and cats in the air-conditioned trailers of Sumter (Fla.) Disaster Animal Response Team (DART) and the Humane Society of Mississippi and bring them back to Jackson.
Yesterday was dedicated to temporary triage and decontaminating the animals. Only those workers vaccinated with Hepatitis A and B vaccinations could do the actual bathing because of the animals' contact with human waste. It wasn't a pleasant task, but soon everyone involved was clean and resting comfortably. Today, some of these lucky creatures were adopted to new homes, and others were on their way to shelters further east for their chance at new lives.
Right now, The HSUS is the lead national humane group working in Mississippi under the direction of the Board of Animal Health. The HSUS and all our support teams are setting up major staging areas in the coastal county of Jackson near Gautier and in Hattiesburg further north. These facilities will be the primary operational bases for our efforts from here on out. We are continuing to look for more locations in the hardest hit areas, but for right now this is a great start.
Jackson County was hit hard by Katrina, but the storm surge was less destructive there because it is the easternmost coastal county. The local animal control shelter withstood Katrina’s onslaught and has offered its property to us as a staging area for rescue, distribution of supplies, and movement of volunteers from the east.
Our teams met with county officials while doing damage assessment with the federal Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams (V-MAT) in Jackson County. Somebody at the Sheriff's Office asked if they were there for the sea lion. It was the first they had heard of it, and while taken aback, they jumped in and helped with the sea lion’s retrieval from a bayou in a destroyed neighborhood. The storm surge apparently carried the animal from an aquarium in the Gulfport area many miles away.
While the big rigs that allow us to function as a self-sufficient enterprise made their way to the Jackson Animal Shelter today, the Humane Society of Missouri responders, working under our umbrella, rescued animals from a boarding kennel that had collapsed in the storm. Many more rescues will be taking place in the days to come as additional teams move into the area.
So, the really hard work is about to begin. A massive rescue across the coastal areas will be undertaken, food supplies must be distributed throughout the entire southern part of Mississippi, systems have to be set up to try to reunite lost animals with their displaced human caregivers, and additional animal-friendly shelters are urgently needed so that pet owners in Mississippi don’t have to lose any more than they already have. Right now they need the love and comfort of their furry companions to help them through this horrible time, and we hope to make that a reality.
