During the Katrina evacuation of the Superdome in New Orleans, thousands of people were pushed against barricades trying to get a seat on a bus that would get them out of hell. Among the jostling bodies, a small child was clutching a small dog. They were both scared, hungry and thirsty. Hope abounded when the buses finally began to arrive. Then, cleverly, a police officer confiscated the boy’s dog. Dogs are not allowed on the bus. As the dog prayed from his hands, the boy cried out in anguish: “Snowball, snowball…” and he was so overcome with grief that he vomited.
Hurricane Katrina has devastated the Gulf Coast and the human death toll is rising. For survivors, worry about pets left behind only adds to their trauma. Some evacuees who had vehicles were able to bring their pets with them, but thousands entered the Superdome and were forced to leave the animals they love behind to fend for themselves. He left heartbreakingly to face a terrifying hurricane, all alone.
For those animals that did not perish in the hell that was Katrina, the worst was yet to come. The water began to rise. Many lost and confused animals began to wander the streets of a world they did not recognize, hungry and thirsty and longing for their guardians.
A woman ran back to find her entire apartment reduced to oversized matchsticks, but the loss she expressed was only for her dog. “My dog was in the apartment!” she screamed and tears rolled down her face.
A white Labrador stuck in a tree, stranded and terrified, looking confused when people walked past him. But the human rescue effort doesn’t have a big enough social heart to include our animals.
The dogs that were carefully rescued and held by families on top of the rooftops were abandoned while the humans were evacuated. Older residents who had stayed in flooded residences for five days just to protect their beloved animals, were forced to leave their animals to starve, perhaps to drain them. An old man got on the boat, his dog was patiently waiting for him to invite him in, but instead, he saw his owner floating away. “Max” the man yelled… “Max” he yelled realizing his folly too late as his rescuers hastily moved them out of his reach.
A courageous group of animal rescue organizations mobilized to find and rescue dogs, pets, horses and other animals. A shelter was discovered with animals still inside that had not had food or water for three days.
Frantic emails over the Internet made you sick to your stomach. “Could someone go and feed my animals?” Not knowing if their animals were alive after a week without food or water, or if in fact their homes still existed, all they wanted was for things to be that simple…just feed the animals. A touching image of a cat in the open packed suitcase brought tears to my eyes. If only they could have left the luggage and taken the cat.
Samson, a big brown and white boxer, had only been around a week, he survived. He was left at a vet office when the hurricane hit and his family evacuated to Dallas without him. His placid countenance was compelling enough for rescuers to offer to drive from other states to seek shelter in the disaster area.
“THEY FOUND HIM!” shouted the posted message. “They took him to González with the other animals in the clinic. THANK YOU for your help and understanding. I will be eternally grateful…” her contagious joy was taken as a small consolation by all those who needed something good to hold on to in the middle of everything the pain.
A pet shelter was set up at Blackham Coliseum in Lafayette, right next to the Cajundome. Evacuees could bring their pets there to stay. They reiterated that they had “LOTS of food, water, crates, crates, bedding, and newspapers. BUT owners are responsible for feeding, drinking, walking, and medicating their own pets.” And then the cruelest cut of all.
Many of those pets that hugged their guardians and survived hurricane, flood, famine, thirst, and evacuation have received a final blow out of economic necessity. They have been given up for adoption. Do your guardians have the greatest need? To rescue right now.
A group of LSU students set up an ad-hoc rescue center at the LSU AgCenter/Parker Coliseum that houses animals in cages, the “tenthouse” for dogs. But rescuers can bring in large numbers of animals and pen them while they wait to be reunited with their owners.
But money for animals is much harder to find. They need 1,000 extra large air kennels (open boxes), animal supplies, towels, bowls, vet supplies, tick and flea meds and volunteers with animal shelter experience.
“Please make a donation to MuttShack Animal Rescue. We need more homes for animals! Every box is one more life saved!” says Amanda St. John, founder of MuttShack Animal Rescue.
Hopefully, somewhere among the rows of boxes full of heartbroken animals, we’ll find Snowball.
God bless the boy who shook our national conscience and made us look with disgust at ourselves and how we treat our animals…