Update on Katrina disaster area situation

An update on the Katrina disaster area: As of 9/13/05 they are still desperate for volunteers. I have spoken with friends at the shelter in Gonzales, Louisiana, who say they enough supplies but not enough people. They suggest that if you are able to go down there, please just go. Of particular need are large air-conditioned rigs that can transport many animals.

Mississippi is also in dire need of volunteers. There are thousands of animals and no people to care for them. Randy Grimm, guardian of Quentin, the famous dog who last year survived the gas chambers, is in Mississippi and is calling for help. I hope to speak with him tomorrow, Wednesday, and have more information for those who wish to go to Mississippi.

I have contact information for the HSUS shelter in Gonzales Louisiana and the Best Friends shelter in Tylertown, and a list of vaccinations one should get and supplies one needs to bring, compiled by Kinship Circle, all on my website at http://www.DawnWatch.com/katrina.htm

Brenda Shoss of Kinship Circle is an excellent resource for information on volunteering. She is at info [at] kinshipcircle.org
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Animal rescue in the Katrina disaster area continues to fill the news. There was a wonderful story on the front page of Canada's Globe and Mail yesterday, September 12, which I have sent to Canada subscribers. On Saturday, September 10, Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal had a superb front page story on the issue, as did the Salt Lake Tribune on Sunday September 11. And the Chicago Tribune has a great story, and the Indianapolis Star has a particularly hard-hitting story today, Tuesday, September 13.
CNN's Anderson Cooper continues to cover the issue beautifully.

Also today, Tuesday September 13, the San Francisco Chronicle looks at an often neglected disaster issue, the suffering of animals trapped in factory farms (where they were already suffering -- see http://www.FactoryFarming.com ). It looks at one happy case in the midst of the horror, where chickens have a better ending than they would have had without Hurricane Katrina. The article is headed, "1,000 chickens that rode out the storm now escape the frying pan. Vacaville woman leads rescue effort at Mississippi farm." (Pg B2)

The article includes a great quote from Kim Sturla, who runs the Animal Place sanctuary in Vacaville California and traveled to Miscopy after learning about the plight of the chickens on television:
"Some folks say, 'Why save chickens when there are people and dogs and cats to save?' I'm looking at it from the perspective of their lives. The life of the chicken is as important to him as the life of the dog or cat is to them."
We read: "In just two nights, the group collected about 1,000 birds -- including 19 that had been bulldozed into a burial pit with thousands of dead chickens and inches of maggots."
Farm Sanctuary will take half of the chickens, Kim will take at least 100, and they are looking for people to adopt some. You can contact Kim through http://www.animalplace.org

You can read the whole San Francisco Chronicle article on line a http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/13/BAGP6EMQ951.DTL
and send a chicken-friendly, perhaps veg-friendly, letter to the editor at letters [at] sfchronicle.com and advises, "Please limit your letters to 200 or fewer words ... shorter letters have a better chance of being selected for publication."

The San Francisco Chronicle's Monday, September 12 article headed, "Bay Area Response; Airlift brings stranded animals to Bay Area; Pooches and cats orphaned by storm get temporary shelter" can be found on line at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/12/BAGQQEM9ND1.DTL&hw=airlift&sn=001&sc=1000 OR http://tinyurl.com/b7zek And you can respond at the letters address above.

The Tuesday, September 13, Chicago Tribune story is headed, "Letter from Gonzales: Refugee pets swamp holding centers."
It tells us:
"One of the great sadnesses of Hurricane Katrina and the evacuation of New Orleans is that people could be rescued, but not their pets.
Teary-eyed residents tied dogs to trees or locked their pets inside houses that had become islands, worn by the strain of living in a darkened, toxic city, lulled out by the promise that their pets would be rescued as soon as possible. In many instances, that has not been done. Even for the few thousand animals that have been brought out, it is difficult to find their owners....More than 1,200 animals are in a shelter at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, brought by people displaced in the flooding and temporarily unable to care for them....About 3,800 animals--most of their owners undetermined--were rescued and brought to the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, which has livestock holding pens and an open-air exposition house geared for 4-H shows."

You can read that whole story on line at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509130071sep13,1,16047.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed OR http://tinyurl.com/azq5b and keep the animal discussion alive in the paper with a letter to the editor.
The Tribune takes letters at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/chi-lettertotheeditor.customform OR http://tinyurl.com/4lsug

The Tuesday, September 13, Indianapolis Star included a short, sad, but helpful article headed, "You can help pets affected by Katrina"

It opens: "The loss of human life and property as a result of Katrina is unspeakable. But at least one survivor still had something to hold onto. On camera, as she held her soggy kitten close to her chest, she said,' No, I did not lose everything. I thank God for what is spared,' as she petted her cat while tears streamed from her eyes.

"At the airport in New Orleans, one man muttered repeatedly, 'He saved my life.' He was talking about his dog. Now, authorities were asking him to give up the pet. He refused. And they refused to transport the man to a shelter. It's uncertain how that standoff ended, but it was a scene played out countless times."

You can read the whole article, which includes a list of groups involved in the animal disaster relief (though unfortunately omitting Best Friends - http://www.BestFriends.org ) on line at http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/LIVING/509130331
You can keep the animal related discussion alive in the Indianapolis Star with letters to the editor. The Star takes letters at:
http://www.indystar.com/help/contact/letters.html

Florida's St. Petersburg Times had the story on the front page on Monday, September 12, headed, "Rescuers search city for marooned animals."
You'll find that article on line at: http://tinyurl.com/7wdsm And you can keep the discussion alive in that paper with a letter to the editor at http://www.sptimes.com/letters/

CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed HSUS's Wayne Pacelle at the shelter in Gonzalez, Louisiana. Cooper mentioned that his show had received hundreds of emails on the animal issue. Cooper is clearly an animal friendly person, who would not completely ignore the issue anyway, but loads of positive feedback from viewers makes it much easier for a reporter to get clearance to do these stories. Please thank the show at http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?10

The big front page Sunday, September 11, Salt Lake Tribune story was headed, "Animal rescuers race against death." It followed Paul Berry and the Best Friends team. It tells us:
" Rigid bodies of animals - some of which reportedly have been run over by emergency vehicles or shot by soldiers and police - line the streets. After more than 10 sweltering days without food and clean water, many of the abandoned and orphaned pets are within hours of perishing. Berry, chief operations officer for the Kanab-based Best Friends Animal Society, and his Utah team are frantically working to get them out alive." You'll find it on line at http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_3016921 and can send an appreciative letter to the Salt Lake Tribune
at: http://www.sltrib.com/contactus

And Saturday's hard-hitting front page Akron Beacon Journal story by Connie Bloom was headed, "Very little animal rescue after hurricane. Conditions horrible; pets abandoned, suffer."

It opens:
"When you're in the path of a hurricane, you pray for your life and cling to your family. Sometimes that's a Great Dane or an eight-pack of ferrets. To part with them when all else is lost would be unbearable, yet that's been the case for many pet owners in the aftermath of Katrina.
The world watched in horror as a rescue worker wrenched a puppy from the arms of a boy."
The article says that according to Dapha Nachmiovitch, a spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, "Rescuers have threatened to shoot dogs in order to force people to leave them behind.''

The article is the only one I have seen willing to put some of the blame on those who chose to leave their animals (those who evacuated early were not all forced to). It said in Waveland people could go to their homes and pick up their pets on Wednesday, but, according to one reporter, "most of the (able-bodied) people who lived there had homes completely destroyed and have no interest in picking up their animals."

Bloom comments, "Abandonment of a helpless family pet is the most heart-breaking human failure of all."
You can read her article on line at:
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/12609707.htm
The Akron Beacon Journal takes letters at vop [at] thebeaconjournal.com and advises, "You must include your name, address and phone number to be considered for publication."

You'll find my alert on other coverage from last weekend -- a New York Times editorial, and stories in the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune on line at http://www.DawnWatch.com/9-05_Animal_Media_Alerts.htm#KATRINA7 and you'll find my Saturday, September 10 Washington Post op-ed on the Katrina animal issue at http://www.DawnWatch.com/op-ed-september10-2005.htm


(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)