Animals in the Tsunami and Relief Fund

December 31, 2004
By Eric Porter

In all the chaos and horror of the tsunami in South Asia, there have been some remarkable stories of heroism. And a few quite touching reports to do with animals.

The Jakarta Post tells of a woman called Riza, who was in bed on vacation in a rented house in Indonesia when, at about 8 a.m., she saw walls of water, mud, rocks, and branches rushing into the neighborhood. She ran to the second floor of a neighbor's house with her three friends and stood on top of a cupboard. But the current swept them all away.

As Riza was drifting, she saw her neighbors, two girls and their mother. The mother was badly injured and Riza could not reach her. "She shouted, 'Please help save my children. Let me be, but please save my children,'" Riza recounted later, in tears.

As she struggled for her own life and that of the children, she said a large snake as long as a telephone pole approached her and allowed them to rest on her. She and the nine-year-olds clung to the reptile, who was drifting along with the current, until they arrived at higher ground. The girls were badly injured, but safe. Riza said she slapped her face to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

In another story, a British tourist says she saw an elephant save several children on a Thai beach when the killer waves struck. The animal had been brought to a beach resort in Phuket to entertain children.

Laura Barnett says the elephant's keeper hoisted kids up onto the animal's back, and then walked them off to safety.

She and her family escaped the disaster, but the beach where she was staying was destroyed.

When a mother in southern India saw the coming flood and tried to rush her three children to safety, she knew she could only carry the two youngest. She called to the third, seven-year-old Dinakaran, to follow her up the hill, but he ran back to the family hut, right on the seashore.

It was the family dog, Selvakumar, who saved the day, racing back to the hut, nipping at the youngster and pushing and nudging him to come out and hurry on up the hill. He and the boy were both saved from what followed.

Finally, from all across the region, reports have been coming in of animals somehow having advance warning of the approaching flood.

For example, wildlife officials in Sri Lanka expressed surprise that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the massive tsunami - indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground.

And an Associated Press photographer, who flew over Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in an air force helicopter, reported seeing abundant wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse.

Floodwaters swept into the park, uprooting trees and toppling cars onto their roofs -- one car even ended up on top of a huge tree -- but the animals apparently were not harmed and may have sought out high ground well before people knew what was coming. (Listen to Best Friends Radio interview with author Rupert Sheldrake.)

"I am finding bodies of humans, but I have yet to see a dead animal," said Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, whose hotel in the park was destroyed. "Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense."

However, in the aftermath of the flood, other animals are sharing much the same fate as humans -- lack of food and water, and severe disruption to their lives.

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Tens of thousands of tsunami animals have been left homeless, in need of food and water. Local Asian animal rescue organizations are working heroically to care for them all.

Blue Cross of India's first task was to comb ravaged areas to cut loose goats and cows who were still tethered, unable to reach food or clean water, then to begin feeding all the many animals.

Thousands of animals have been found dead along the beaches of southern India.

Pradeep Nath of the Visakha SPCA of southern India is caring for hundreds of cows and, with his volunteers and staff, is feeding all the stranded dogs and other animals in twenty devastated villages. We talked to Pradeep, who had recently visited Best Friends' sanctuary, this week on the Best Friends radio show.

In Phuket, Thailand, the Soi Dog Foundation is providing enormous quantities of food to hundreds of dogs, some who've lost their people, and others who used to rely on handouts from restaurants that have now been washed away. A founder of Soi Dog died in the tsunami while helping others, and some of their volunteers have died or been injured.

A USAid worker, who has helped animals for many years, is distributing aid to local animal rescue organizations in Sri Lanka, one of the hardest hit countries.

(Many thanks to Merritt Clifton and Kim Bartlett of Animal People, who have been wonderful in putting us in touch with a number of these organizations.)

Under difficult circumstances, all these amazing people are bringing food, comfort, and safety to as many dogs, cats, goats, cows, snakes, monkeys, birds and other animals as possible.

The Best Friends Tsunami Animal Relief Fund has been set up in order to help. To contribute, visit our online donations section section, and look for instructions under the heading Best Friends Tsunami Animal Relief Fund.

Thank you!