Katrina animals in the news, heartbreak and heartening stories

(Current volunteer needs and information summary at the bottom of this alert.)

CBS Evening News anchor, Bob Schieffer announced last night, regarding the Thursday, October 13, broadcast:
"On Thursday's broadcast: 6 weeks after Katrina some of her most defenseless victims are still being rescued. We'll take you along as a group of dedicated people work to save the animals."

Watch if you can, and please thank CBS for covering the issue. Positive feedback for animal friendly stories includes similar coverage.
CBS Evening News takes feedback at: evening [at] cbsnews.com

(I thank David Sickles for making sure we knew about the coverage.)

On Friday, October 14, National Public Radio's 'Morning Edition' is scheduled to air a story on the animal disaster relief efforts. The reporter spent time in Gonzales and interviewed Dave Pauli. You can listen on your local NPR station or later in the day on line at http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3 . If you do get a chance to hear the story, please make sure you thank Morning Edition for airing it. The show takes comments at http://www.npr.org/contact/

The New Orleans paper, the Times-Picayune, has run a sorrowful lead story in the Thursday, October 13 edition, headed, "Pet rescuers arranging fewer happy reunions; Animals being found are hungry, scared."

It tells us that animals are still being found alive, "But though animal rescues continued this week in largely empty neighborhoods, and though the resilience of domesticated animals -- from house cats to lap dogs to exotic birds -- was sometimes astonishing, time was no longer on their side." And we read that according to Amanda St. John, the founder of Muttshack, a volunteer rescue organization, "A lot of homeowners are coming home to dead and dying animals."

It gives the following heartbreaking descriptions:
"A chow in the Lafitte public housing development seemed to have melted into the rug where he starved to death. A mummified pit bull hanged from his leash on an eastern New Orleans fence where he may have strangled as flood waters receded. A cat skeleton peeked from beneath a pile of rubble. The rescuers recall a small dog, alive but too weak to move, that had presumably been put out with the trash in front of a home. Another dog, found in a bathroom, barely had the strength to raise its head to greet rescuers."

And it quotes Chicago volunteer Karen O'Toole: "I thought when they opened the city, people would rush back to get their pets but some people have just abandoned them. We were told to no longer be going into people's residences as of last Wednesday, but we're working in neighborhoods where the houses are condemned."

It also provides heartening news about the rescue efforts: "Despite the near-death condition of some of the animals, the veterinarians have euthanized none. St. John says that, curiously, the most damaged animals are often the first to be adopted once they've reached evacuation sites. 'Old people take old dogs, people with heart conditions take dogs with heart conditions, people with a limp take dogs with a limp,' she said."

I understand that the number of animals euthanized in the whole effort is not actually zero, but is tiny, and that animals were killed only when more than one vet felt that nothing could be done to save them.

You can read the whole story on the Times-Picayune website at http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1129184918135840.xml OR http://tinyurl.com/e4mxm

And you can send a letter to the editor at http://www.nola.com/contactus/ Under "Submit to" you should choose "Letters to the Times-Picayune."

The Boston Globe today, October 13, has a piece by Gina Spadafori, a Boston Globe Correspondent who is "the author of several pet-care books and a consultant to the Veterinary Information Network." She makes the point that "If pets aren't included in disaster plans, people will die. That's because in disaster after disaster, it has been proven that the strength of the human-animal bond is such that if animals have to be left behind, there are plenty of people who will stay and fight for their pets' survival along with their own."

You'll find that piece on line at http://tinyurl.com/78n6z and you can send a supportive letter to the Globe at letter [at] globe.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor.

Finally, as the items above make clear, some animals are still being found alive and the situation is urgent. Volunteers are needed to get animals out of homes, to leave food for animals on the streets, and to care for animals arriving at the Best Friends shelter in Tylertown. Jane Garrison is still down there, and desperately needs your help. She is now working closely with David Meyer from 1800SaveAPet.com. If you can get down there to help them please just go. Their latest alert tells us, "Morning meetings will now be held at 7:30 am in front of the Southern Animal Foundation at 1823 Magazine, in downtown New Orleans."
Volunteers are responsible for finding their own lodging and should prepare to camp.

If you plan to go I will be delighted to forward you the whole page. It includes the following contact information but I urge you not to use it unless you are in the area and for some reason cannot find them through the Southern Animal Foundation. Jane has begged people not to tie up her phone and she is overwhelmed with email.
Jane Garrison 843-343-8887 JaneGarrison [at] comcast.net David Meyer 310-897-6546

Pia Salk has also been working with them. You can contact her at 323-899-4160

There are other rescue efforts in the Katrina Disaster area in need of volunteers. Brenda Shoss of Kinship Circle is an excellent source of information. She is at info [at] kinshipcircle.org, (desk) 314-863-9445; (cell) 314-795-2646.

Thanks for going to help if you can, and for whatever efforts you have made, or can make, to encourage media coverage of the issue. Positive feedback for positive coverage is truly helpful.


(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.)