September 3, 2005
By Bernie Unti
As the National Guard entered New Orleans to quell civil disorder coming in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, members of the HSUS National Disaster Animal Response Team (DART) worked their way into the nearly obliterated regions of southern Mississippi -- after earlier being denied access to these areas for security reasons -- and also into Louisiana. The situation could not be more urgent in both areas, with reports of animals locked in homes, kennels, veterinary clinics, and other locations. It is a race against time for our first responders on the ground in the stricken areas.
The presence of HSUS personnel on the ground was good news for 120 dogs and cats in Gulfport, Mississippi. There, HSUS team members have begun rescuing these animals from the ravaged community.
The animals had been removed several days earlier from the shelter facility of the Humane Society of Southern Mississippi, in anticipation of the hurricane’s strike. But they can’t be taken back to the shelter, because it’s not there anymore. It was severely damaged by Katrina.
Instead, they will be taken to Jackson, Mississippi, where the HSUS logistical team will work to place the animals with humane societies around the country.
The rescue in Gulfport occurred as three dozen HSUS relief workers extended their reach into devastated areas of Louisiana and Mississippi, working to establish animal-friendly shelters, coordinating animal relief activities with local partners in both government and the nonprofit sector, and seeking to improvise solutions to a host of animal-related emergencies that came in Katrina’s wake.
Answering the Call
Until our disaster team checked in with the news from Gulfport, there had been a steady stream of bad news. And the HSUS phone lines have been beset with frantic calls from people desperate for help -- for animals in distress.
Phones began ringing at The HSUS almost as soon as Katrina struck. The grim reality quickly became apparent -- Katrina would be no ordinary storm. The HSUS moved quickly to set up a dedicated call center at its headquarters in the nation’s capital, and dozens of staff members suspended their normal duties to handle external communications, logging thousands of telephone calls and e-mails from around the country -- many from people seeking urgent assistance as they tried to locate, recover, or keep their animal companions in the midst of the disaster.
Many of the calls came from the afflicted city of New Orleans: A man who couldn’t contact a friend with whom he had left his cats. A woman who had boarded animals in a kennel, whose operators she could no longer reach on the telephone. A caller who got no answer at the veterinary clinic where his cocker spaniel was convalescing. A woman seeking help in locating a pet sitter who had been watching five animals. The owner of the golden retriever “Blue,” saying he would grant permission to anybody he had to in order to rescue his stranded dog “by any means necessary.”
Drawing on past experience and planning for disaster scenarios, HSUS staffers did what they could to assist callers and relief workers in all parts of the devastated regions. One North Carolina woman called the HSUS help line fearing for her parents, New Orleans residents who refused to let the Coast Guard evacuate them because their standard poodle Max could not go along. The HSUS team put her in touch with an animal rescuer willing to provide assistance if they could get to a certain location in time. But before they ever reached that location, they happened upon a trucker, who picked them up and took them to safety in Baton Rouge.
As pleas continued to come in from hurricane victims seeking assistance for stranded companion animals of all kinds, HSUS president and CEO Wayne Pacelle urged authorities to clear the way for animal rescue teams to work in New Orleans, where they could effectively address these and other urgent calls for assistance. “The sooner we can set up operations in New Orleans, the greater the chances we can locate and save animals whose lives are in jeopardy. We owe it to them and to those who care about them, and we will give it everything we’ve got.”
Moreover, Pacelle added, rescue and relief activities in distressed communities of Louisiana and Mississippi will remain The HSUS’s first priority in the weeks ahead. “We’re just beginning to get a sense of the work that lies ahead of us,” he said. “But we’re committed to doing all we can. We know that it’s something that our members support, and we’re confident that they’ll demonstrate their faith by contributing in every possible way to the work that we’re doing.”
