Hurricane Katrina and companion animals

Much of our attention this week is turned to Hurricane Katrina. The suffering there is compounded by society's refusal to acknowledge the bond many of us have with our companions of other species. We read of people who could not evacuate because the shelters would not take animals.

On the front page of the Tuesday, August 31 Los Angeles Times we read about Billy:

"Patricia Penny had begged her son, Billy, 34, to leave. But he was afraid to abandon his five cats and the dog he was watching for friends, so he and his girlfriend stayed at their home on the east side of New Orleans. Penny last heard his voice in an 8 a.m. phone call. He was blunt: 'It's bad.' An enormous magnolia tree had fallen over in the front yard, and the storm had ripped a deck off the house. The water was rising and it was too late to leave."

There is a current Associated Press article, which appears in the Friday, September 2, International Herald Tribune and will probably be in many other Friday papers. It includes the following heart-wrenching story:

"The Superdome, where some 25,000 people were being evacuated by bus to the Houston Astrodome, descended into chaos as well.
...Many people had dogs and they cannot take them on the bus. A police officer took one from a little boy, who cried until he vomited. 'Snowball, snowball,' he cried. The policeman told a reporter he didn't know what would happen to the dog."

The full article is on the Guardian website at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5249122,00.html

Many animal groups have relief efforts. Best Friends, the wonderful no kill sanctuary in Utah is among them, and has a comprehensive website providing regular news updates not just on its own work but also on that of other groups. It is set up as a clearinghouse of animal-related hurricane news and information for the media. You may wish to encourage your local media to visit it.

The site has chat areas and areas that provide information on ways people can help, not just with monetary donations (though they are needed and accepted!) but also with animal fostering. For example you can add yourself to a list of places able to foster horses.

Specific offers to help can be emailed to hrf [at] bestfriends.org

And the Best Friends website includes a "Good News Journal" where you can read good news, such as that about hotels relaxing their pet policies, and also includes an audio interview with their representative in the area. Check out http://www.BestFriends.org


(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.)