Government Needs to Help Shoulder the Burden as Rescue Operations Enter the Late Stages in Louisiana

By Julie Falconer

GONZALES, Louisiana—In the three weeks since Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast, HSUS-led operations have rescued more than 6,000 animals in desperate situations—locked in abandoned houses and garages; trapped in trees, on rooftops, and in flood waters; and left to fend for themselves in the shambles of New Orleans and other hard-hit areas. But thousands more still need our help, and that's why we're continuing to push federal authorities for help.

We're asking animal advocates around the nation to urge the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense to join forces with our army of the kind to save as many lives as possible. We're making this urgent request for one simple reason: Time is running out for animals, and this multi-state rescue and sheltering operation far exceeds the capacity of non-profit organizations.

How massive is the operation? Here's a snapshot of the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center facility in Gonzales, Louisiana, where The HSUS, the Louisiana SPCA, and many other organizations continue to bring rescued animals, care for them, and prepare them for export to more permanent shelters—in hopes of reuniting them with their owners.

Up Before Dawn

Every morning volunteers gather at daybreak to organize, distribute equipment and supplies, and hear updates from operations leaders. This morning, Dave Pauli, director of The HSUS's Northern Rockies Regional Office and incident commander at Lamar-Dixon, warns volunteers of worsening conditions in New Orleans. Buildings that have been soaking in the flood waters are increasingly unstable, and may not be safe to enter. Receding waters have left a "vicious, disgusting, and toxic muck," which makes for treacherous footing, he cautions.

Rescue groups are formed according to the area of the city in which they'll work. Loaded with traps, control poles, protective gear, crates, and massive amounts of water and pet food, the groups head out in convoys of 8-15 vehicles, and travel the 50 miles down Interstate 10 into New Orleans. A veterinary team with a mobile clinic accompanies each convoy and sets up in a central location in the targeted neighborhood. The rest of the group breaks into teams of two to three people in one air-conditioned vehicle to cover assigned areas.

With a limited number of hours before the 6 p.m. curfew in the Big Easy, volunteer rescuers move quickly to perform two, equally important missions: feed and water animals who avoid capture or who appear comfortable in their current homes, or pull out animals who are injured, sick or living in a hazardous environment. When a vehicle is filled with animals, the team returns to the veterinary station, where trained handlers unload the crates, and the medical team triages the sick and injured. 

New Arrivals

At the end of the day, the rescue teams return to Gonzales, where animals captured in the afternoon are checked by veterinarians and unloaded. Working in assembly-line fashion, intake workers document each animal, photograph them, then hand them off to other volunteers, who lead them into empty kennels and provide them with fresh food and water. Critical cases are rushed to the Veterinary Medical Assistance Team (VMAT) tent for emergency triage.

As expected, the overall condition of new arrivals is worsening with each passing day. Heat stress, dehydration, extreme emaciation, and dermatitis secondary to wet skin are common. Animals who struggled to escape attics, garages, and flooded homes are covered in traumatic chafe lesions, while those who had given up hope and simply laid down to die suffer from painful pressure sores. Skilled at providing critical care in field conditions, the VMAT volunteers toil nonstop to ensure that every effort is made to save these animals.

To make space for each night's intake of 150-250 new arrivals, export teams work around the clock to organize daily transports of cats and dogs to shelters and rescue groups across the nation. With temperatures in the 90s and humidity almost as high, timing is everything to safe and successful exports, explains volunteer Kelly O'Meara, a program manager for The HSUS's Humane Society International. Animals must be ready to export in the morning, when temperatures are still cool, or quickly prepped for an early evening transport, when the sun begins to set.

In the past four days, nearly 700 animals have been sent by plane or truck to Phoenix; Monroe, Louisiana; Palm Beach County, Florida; Memphis; and other locations, where they can receive the specialized attention and full-time monitoring many of them need. 

Beat the Heat

High temperatures make travel both a challenge and a necessity for the animals' health. The Lamar-Dixon site houses about 1,300 animals on any given day, making it the largest animal shelter in the nation. But this is a shelter without walls, without climate-controlled rooms. So fans whirl nonstop. Donated box fans line the aisles and banks of cages; they perch jury-rigged to the tops of stall doors, sending cooling breezes on the animals below. 

Volunteers have pooled their collective experience to come up with more ways to help their animal charges beat the heat. On her second day at Lamar-Dixon, volunteer Jennifer Norris of Ceresco, Nebraska, put some forgotten skills to good use. An adjudicator for the Nebraska Department of Labor, Norris worked as a dog groomer's assistant in her youth. She quickly set up shop at a grooming station, giving summer cuts to the heavy-coated animals. 

That's the kind of creativity that Lamar-Dixon invites. The HSUS and other groups may have built the operational framework for this temporary shelter, but the volunteers are the ones who fill in the blanks. Now it's time for the federal government to add itself to this still-evolving picture down south.

Julie Falconer is an editor in The HSUS Publications Department