posted September 08, 2005 05:30 AM              

Valerie Bennett is reunited with her dog at an Atlanta Hospital.

By Anita Manning, USA TODAY

(Sept. 7) - Animal rescuers are racing to save abandoned pets in the Gulf Coast region but say the situation is growing more desperate by the hour for thousands of Katrina's four-footed victims.

"There are animals locked in a lot of places," said Sandy Montorose, an ASPCA staff member who arrived Sunday night in New Orleans with a team of rescuers. National Guardsmen were reporting dogs barking in apartment buildings or trapped in yards, she said.

In Mississippi, hundreds of animals have been rescued, but countless others are trapped.

"Somebody left their dog prior to the storm tied to a boat," said Dick Green, disaster coordinator with the American Humane Association, which was able to rescue the animal. "It's just unbelievable. Here's a dog, abandoned for a week with no food, no water and tied to boat."

Teams from local and national animal welfare and veterinary groups are working together to find, feed and provide shelter for thousands of dogs, cats, horses and other pets stranded or abandoned when owners had to evacuate.

The Humane Society of the United States, working over the weekend with the Louisiana SPCA, took 43 dogs and 16 cats out of the Superdome and delivered them to a temporary shelter at Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzalez, said Melissa Rubin, HSUS vice president for field and disaster services.

"There are still more in there," she said. "They're in a state of shock, they're hungry, they're scared. They're terrified, just running around the Superdome."

There are bright spots: U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian Terry Conger said Tuesday that Snowball, a small white dog taken by police Thursday from a sobbing little boy as he boarded a bus at the Superdome, has been located at the Gonzalez shelter and will be reunited with his owner.

"This is one of the heartwarming stories," Conger said.

The dog is among about 3,000 animals brought into the shelter system, Conger said. Photos of unidentified animals will be posted on Petfinder.com.

HSUS has deployed more than 140 rescuers to Mississippi and Louisiana. "We're having to use extremely highly skilled animal control professionals because it is such dangerous work," she said, citing disease and the risk of injury when handling frightened animals.

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A fleet of rescue boats brought to the area by animal welfare groups and under the direction of state animal control authorities and the Louisiana SPCA fanned out through New Orleans after finally being given access by federal authorities.

Some families have refused to evacuate without their pets, said ASPCA's Montorose, who is working in New Orleans. On Monday, two couples were brought in by boat with their Akitas. The dogs were taken to safety at the expo center and later will be reunited with their owners, she said. "It's not just the animals," Montorose said. "When you see these people who have lost everything and the only thing they have is their favorite loved one, it's about something much larger."

The scope of the disaster is overwhelming animal shelters in the region and beyond, which are struggling to find space for animal refugees. The Houston SPCA is caring for hundreds of animals evacuated there before the hurricane by the Louisiana SPCA, along with pets belonging to people relocated to the Astrodome.

A shelter in Gulfport, Miss., was destroyed in the hurricane, and 200 animals drowned.

Many animals are being turned in to shelters by their owners who have no homes and no way to care for them, said Michael Mountain of Best Friends Animal Society.

Animals are resilient, says Julie Morris of the ASPCA, "but they're going to starve, they're going to drown, so we're working as fast as possible."

09/07/2005 07:12

Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. All Rights Reserved.

posted September 08, 2005 09:30 AM            

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