By Tim Carman
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana – Approximately 25 shelters from around the country have formally offered to take between 30 and 200 dogs and cats each from the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, where more than 1,200 animals are temporarily housed on a sprawling compound northeast of New Orleans. Another 15 or so shelters have unofficially asked commanders at the emergency facility for animals as well.
The main obstacle preventing the movement of animals out of Louisiana is a state regulation requiring that pets owned by residents must be held in Louisiana for at least 30 days. But today, during a meeting between state and federal officials overseeing disaster animal services, Louisiana state veterinarian Maxwell Lea and assistant state veterinarian Martha Littlefield gave oral approval for Lamar-Dixon officials to start shipping out all appropriate animals—with the caveat that the animals be easily tracked down by owners.
Dave Pauli, director of The HSUS's Northern Rockies Regional Office and the incident commander at Lamar-Dixon, assured the state vets that the exported animals would be traceable. All animals leaving the Gonzales facility are microchipped and digitally photographed, he said, with their information to be placed on the website, www.petfinder.com. Pauli added that he wants pets owned by Louisiana residents transported only to shelters in nearby states.
Easing the holding rules will help officials at Lamar-Dixon free up some desperately needed space. State and federal authorities had capped the number of animals allowed at the compound at 1,300, a number that Lamar-Dixon reached and exceeded in less than a week of operation. That meant if rescuers wanted to bring in 200 dogs, compound officials had to move out 200 dogs to other shelters.
But until today, Lamar-Dixon could only transport out of state stray animals and surrendered pets from Orleans Parish, the jurisdiction that includes New Orleans. All others had to remain in Louisiana.
Pauli predicted that within 24 hours or so, after officials review shelter applications and decide which animals are appropriate for transport, many more dogs and cats would be leaving the Lamar-Dixon shelter than in recent days. Somewhere between 200 and 600 animals are moved out of Lamar-Dixon daily, although some days the number has been lower. With more space freed up on Saturday, September 17, rescue teams brought in more than 400 newly rescued animals.
Executives from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and The HSUS are reviewing shelter applications thoroughly to make sure that each approved facility provides first-class care for the exported pets. Shelters that pass muster will still be required to hold the animals until September 30; the shelters will then be able to "conditionally foster" the pets from October 1 to October 15, meaning that the foster parent must surrender the animal if the original owner wants to reclaim the pet. After October 16, the animals can be put up for adoption.
Rescue Teams Still Combing the City
With more space opening up at the Lamar-Dixon facility, rescue teams in New Orleans continued their frantic race to reach stranded pets in time. One HSUS team featured the duo of Drew Moore and Jane Garrison, whom journalists and videographers have chronicled over the past week saving dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, and chinchillas.
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| Jane Garrison with the recovering dog at Lamar-Dixon. |
The pair made headlines on Wednesday, September 14, by rescuing a large dog from a rooftop with the help of a few National Guardsmen. The dog apparently had been trapped on the roof since Katrina passed, and was about 60 percent underweight. Moore and Garrison said that, at the time of rescue, the dog was the most emaciated they had ever seen. The dog is recovering nicely at Lamar-Dixon.
During that rescue, Moore and Garrison lost their crowbar and wire cutters, a pair of instruments absolutely vital to accessing trapped animals. The pair tried to replace both tools, but could only find a cheap, thin crowbar that was essentially useless. "I lost that (crowbar) in about an hour," Moore said, "but I didn't even care."
Instead, Moore has had to rely on an old-fashioned tool for breaking down doors: his foot. This method is troublesome not only because it slows down the pair, but also because Moore's a little accident-prone. He's already fallen off some steps and bruised his chest, and he earlier stepped on a nail.
Imagine Moore's surprise on Friday, September 16, when he passed by the house where he and Garrison rescued the emaciated dog and saw a box sitting on probably the only dry piece of ground in the area. Inside the box were a pair of gallon water jugs and his bolt cutters. On top of that were two litter pans and his crowbar.
Moore and Garrison were back in business.
Love Note Keeps Incident Commander Going
Back at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center rescue and sheltering operation, Incident Commander Dave Pauli sleeps very little. Everywhere he walks or drives on the compound, people approach him, asking for information, making a request, or just stopping by to complain. He gets questions from everyone—from the lowest-ranking volunteer to the highest-ranking veterinarian in the state of Louisiana.
Pauli, as you can imagine, manages more than a little stress, but the perpetually upbeat commander keeps any sign of it getting to him under wraps. When Pauli needs a little pick-me-up in the middle of a typically chaotic day, he has one right in his truck: It's tucked in a clear plastic envelope, like it's a piece of evidence he wants to preserve for trial.
It's a hand-written note from his oldest daughter, Maggie, age 13, who explains how much she'll miss him while he's taking care of the animals. It ends with this sentence:
"When you look in the mirror, you are looking at a hero."
Tim Carman is managing editor of hsus.org.
