Attention Animal Lovers! The Staging Area For Animals: closed Temporarily!

[leftchick]

Many DUers were upset last night that they stopped letting animals in. Here is the reason why and it looks like every thing is under control. I wish I could be there to help these folks. They must be exhausted and are doing a tremendous job.....

http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=hurricane_diary



Evening Update, September 10

Overwhelming Success Overwhelms Rescuers
The land and water animal rescue teams have found so many stranded animals that they are overwhelming the staging center in Gonzales, LA. A 24 hour moratorium on bringing animals to the staging area has been enacted. In the mean time, rescue teams will spread out and deliver food and water to areas where they know animals are still present. This will give the team at Gonzales a chance to catch up with the influx and assess their needs for the upcoming weeks. Upon arrival, each animal must be decontaminated, vet checked, microchipped, fitted with a paper collar for identification, and have a record created. Then food, water, bedding and other comforts are provided and housing is found. As swiftly as possible, photographs are taken so information can be put in the Petfinder database, http://disaster.petfinder.com/ . There are now well over 1,000 animals being held in Gonzales. Dr. Martha Littlefield-Chabaud of the Louisiana State Veterinarian's Office wants New Orleans' animals to stay in LA for at least thirty days, to give owners a fair chance to claim their four-footed loved ones. With an expected increase to many thousands in the next week, keeping all these animals at one site may prove to be too enormous an undertaking -- especially at this bare-bones site. Other options are being considered -- always keeping in mind the end goal of reuniting as many pets with their families as possible.

Because of your generosity, the ASPCA has just sent $12,000 worth of computer equipment to Gonzales and $13,000 in medical supplies to Louisiana State University to continue our support of animals affected by Hurricane Katrina. We have also sent six more skilled staff, most with veterinary or shelter management experience, to assist at both locations. Shelter Outreach Manager Laura Lanza is in the process of dispatching $205,000 in disaster grants to ten other shelters in Louisiana and Mississippi that have been impacted by Katrina.

Caring for Care-givers
After 9/11, Dr. Stephanie La Farge, ASPCA Senior Director Counseling, spent four months at the Family Assistance Center. There she scheduled pet therapy teams to accompany family members of survivors to the World Trade Towers site, monitored the pet therapy teams that worked at the Center to make sure the animals were not unduly stressed and provided support for the Red Cross workers, chaplains, law enforcement and other care-givers working in the Center who were experiencing burn-out due to the massive nature of the terrorist strike. Taking this invaluable experience with her, Dr. La Farge and her assistant Stephanie Smith are heading down to Gonzales this week to set up a counseling support center to aid animal workers who are, day-after-day, facing death, unbearable stench and filth, and in some cases their own personal losses, as they go about their jobs rescuing and caring for New Orleans' stranded animals.

[justiceischeap]

1. These are first hand audio accounts of rescues in NO.

http://www.helpinganimals.com/audio/rescue9.9.05.mp3
http://www.helpinganimals.com/audio/rescue9.10.05.mp3

[Coventina]

2. Still keeping hope alive for all of our helpless friends

Two legged, four legged, winged, etc.

Much good work is being done. So many more to save.
:-(

We in the animal advocacy community must make sure this NEVER happens again. People should never have to choose between their own safety and that of their non-human family members. It's just not humane.

[RebelOne]

3. I donated to three animal rescues.

The HSUS, Noah's Wish and the LA Animal Rescue. Hope the little pittance that I gave will help these poor animals.

[leftchick]

4. I did as well

To HSUS,Best Friends and Petfinder.com who distributes to all groups that are needy. Have you checked out their page?...http://www.petfinder.com/disaster/

The thing is they will continue to need donations for the long haul.
psst. Don't tell my hubby but I am going to donate again next week. I truly wish I could physically be there to help. :(

[candice]

5. Me, too the Louisiana Humane Society, American Humane Society,

and Animal Nation (one mentioned on DU). The people are being fed, I hope that the animals can get clean drinking water and food and be reunited with their owners. The work that is being done is encouraging. Too bad the first pet rescue teams (with their own boats) was turned back. Also, on CNN a man who was rescuing pets said they had 3000 requests to enter homes and rescue pets. I wonder how they can do that. No one expected to be gone so long. People should be allowed to go back and check on their homes.

[nicknameless]

6. Oh, leftchick, thank you for being hopeful.

While it has been a depressing day, but there has been a bit of good news too. One story reported that some in the military are soft-hearted and are putting out MREs for stranded pets. There has been some feeding going on, so there is still hope for many of these babies. But more people have to get out and really ramp-up the rescue effort.

Some other good news, (bearing in mind that stories have been changing all along) is that General Honore has ordered the military under him to rescue animals with people, and that they are bringing cages for the animals. I've become pretty cynical, so I'll just wait and hope to see it happen.

The biggest rescue issue are those requiring boats (St. Bernard & Jefferson especially).

I'll post rescues below.

peace & :hug:

[nicknameless]

7. Miss Kitty saves her dad ... and then is rescued.

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/050910/290/frqt5.html

Saturday September 10, 09:43 PM
Katrina Survivor Reuinted With Cat in Hospital Room

SLIDELL (Stockholm: ORES.ST - news) , La., Sept. 10, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Volunteers from the animal rescue organization Noah's Wish and
Slidell animal control officers reunited a 59-year-old Katrina survivor with his beloved cat "Miss Kitty" in a Mississippi hospital room yesterday.

Slidell resident Bill Harris was trapped in his home by rising floodwaters for three days. Harris stood on a chair in five feet of water with his beloved cat in one arm and a two-way radio in the other. For three days, Harris desperately called for help on the radio. When rescuers finally arrived, Harris, who suffers from chronic kidney failure, was forced to leave the cat behind. Fortunately, an MSNBC crew covering the Katrina disaster learned of Harris' ordeal and went to the animal rescue group Noah's Wish for help. The not-for-profit organization is working with Slidell Animal Control to rescue pets in the aftermath of Katrina. After days of searching, a cat wearing a black collar and matching the description Harris gave was humanely trapped.

Excited that they had found "Miss Kitty," Slidell animal control officer Horace Troullier and Donna Wackerbauer, a Noah's Wish volunteer from Canada, drove the cat over 70 miles from Slidell to Hattiesburg, Mississippi where Harris had been admitted to Forest General Hospital. "I was holding "Miss Kitty" in my arms when I walked into Mr. Harris' hospital room," said Wackerbauer. "When she saw her owner, "Miss Kitty" jumped out of my arms, onto her owner and burrowed her head into him. It was like she was saying, "Yeah! I got my daddy back!'"

During the three-day ordeal, Harris said that "Miss Kitty" meowed to keep him awake whenever he began to drift in and out of consciousness.

"It was the most exciting rescue I have ever been a part of," said Troullier. "This is what it's all about." A 15-year veteran of Slidell Animal Control, Troullier lost everything when his house flooded and he does not have insurance. Nevertheless, the dedicated animal control officer has been working around the clock for two weeks straight.

Harris is suffering from internal bleeding of the kidneys and stomach and will require surgery. But his spirits are high from spending time with "Miss Kitty" before Troullier and Wackerbauer returned the cat to the Noah's Wish animal rescue center in Slidell, where she will be cared for until he is released from the hospital.

Joe Bruncszk, a producer from Washington DC, videotaped the reunion. The videotape will be available in the evening of 9/10/05 at www.msnbc.com in the Katrina Blog. Photos will be available on www.noahswish.org on 9/12/05.

Very emotional video clip of Miss Kitty and her dad being reunited on the same page! :cry: (happy tears)