Furry Friends Rescue Efforts

By Allen Messick

Unterrified Democrat Editor

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, leaving thousands hurting and homeless.  But when it comes to the people, and even the property, Sandra Holder says there are state and federal agencies reading and willing to step up to the task of rescue and rebuilding.  For Holder the thousands of hurting and homeless she volunteered to help were the abandoned and lost pets.

   “Humans are capable of doing for ourselves for the most part, and there are agencies and systems in place to lend a hand,” she said.  “But we have an obligation to help our animals.  We domesticated them, brought them into our homes and taught them to rely on us.  If we aren’t there, how are they supposed to survive?”

   Sandra and her husband Scott have owned the Dauphine Hotel in Bonnots Mill for nine years.  They are both adamant animal lovers.  “We’re both very passionate about animals,” she said, and after seeing the reports on the news about the animals left behind and reading the Internet BLOGs saying “we need people” Sandra volunteered, spending a week in New Orleans in an animal rescue facility.

  “I’ve always been an animal lover and I wanted to go down and volunteer.  There were a lot of individuals like me, who just showed up and wanted to help,” Sandra said after returning from her rescue mission last week.

   Gathering up a week’s supply of personal items and camping gear as well as filling the remaining space in her truck with pet supplies, Sandra took off for Louisiana.  She met up with members of MuttShack, a non-profit agency based in Los Angeles which had taken over residency in Lake Castle Middle School.  

Each day, an average of 50 dogs were housed in the gymnasium converted to a kennel.  Another 50-plus cats were housed in crates and cages under the protection of picnic shelters on the school grounds.  Classrooms had been converted to veterinary offices and volunteer vets from across the country took time to exam each and every animal brought in to the shelter.  Most were simply dehydrated and malnourished.  Many needed care for wounds they had received trying to free themselves from collars and chains or kennels in order to find food and water.  Still more suffered chemical burns with hair loss and skin diseases as a result of the fuel and chemical spills in the floodwaters.

   Generators provided electricity to keep fans on the animals.  Bottled gallon jugs of water were used for the animals while the volunteers slept in tents in the schoolyard took advantage of an open door policy at a nearby FEMA center where they could get daily showers and an occasional meal.

   Holder said her assignment was managing the cattery – the cat kennel area in the picnic shelter where the cats were housed until they could be fostered out to various non-profit and private agencies across the country.

  Other volunteers rushed to building about to be bulldozed to make sure they had been cleared of all pets.  “They want the city back and they are moving pretty quickly to tear down the old apartment buildings,” Holder said.  Each animal was trapped or captured, checked by a vet, documented and photographed and posted on Petfinder.com in hopes of later reconnecting them with their owners.

   Volunteers patrolled the neighborhoods, looking for animals, searching buildings and homes for pets left to fend for themselves.  Some animals were found trapped inside buildings that had not been opened since the hurricane a month earlier.  Some utility and law enforcement coordination was used to help locate animals with buildings spray painted to notify the volunteers that an animal may still be inside.

  “There are several myths about the animals in the hurricane hit areas that simply aren’t true.  No. 1 is all the animals died in the storm.  There are tons of animals down there.

  No. 2 – as people return, they will take care of their pets.  But the people aren’t returning.  The city is still without power and for the most part, empty.  There are packs dogs roaming the streets and cats everywhere,” Holder said.

  “There is nothing to come back to for most of these people.  We saw a few coming back into the city and going through to try to retrieve some personal belongings.  And a few did come through the shelter looking for their pets,” she said. “But for the most part, the animals are paying the price for not being taken care of.

  “When the evacuation occurred, most didn’t think they’d be gone that long.  Dogs are still tied up to the front porch.  Cats are found under beds and in couches.  There are not so many puppies, but kittens were everywhere.”

  “Because a month has passed since the storm left the city flooded and emptied the human population, the animals are in poor condition. “If they were left free to roam, they had a chance to fend for themselves.  But those locked in the homes and apartments had no chance,” Holder said.

   Besides the cats and dogs, the shelter also housed two swans, a gerbil, rabbits and a few birds – apartment pets.  After being processed, photographed, doctored and documented as to where they were found and when, the animals are fostered out to care facilities.  “In the week I was there, the animals were transferred to Virginia, California and New York,” Holder said.

   She said the ultimate goal was to reunite the pets with their owners if at all possible.  “The pets were not released to the foster centers without the understanding that we are going to try to locate their owners.  They have to be kept for a minimum of 30 days or longer before permanent adoption,” she said.  

   In making the trip south, Sandra had two passengers along for the ride.  She took with her two dogs that had been previously fostered to the Central Missouri Humane Society in Columbia.  The owners had been found and they were to be reunited through the shelter system.

   But knowing the reconnection isn’t always going to be possible, Sandra brought five cats to Missouri where four have been fostered out to Dr. Nan Taylor-Keilholz at the Osage Regional Vet Clinic in Linn.  One small kitten remains in Sandra and Scott’s home where it will undoubtedly join the growing family of eight feline residents already housed by the couple.

Editor's Note: Sandra Returned for three tours of duty, and her husband Scott Holder joined her to assist in running the MuttShack Cattery and Cat Triage.