I like the airborne pit bull in the first photo especially. =)
Posted on 09/18/2005 3:32:02 AM PDT by johnmecainrino
Animal Welfare Groups Race to Save New Orleans Pets
Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Royce Bufkin, a hotel maintenance worker who lives on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, refused to evacuate when Hurricane Katrina struck the city on Aug. 29. Officials wouldn't let him take his cats, Lou and Ellis.
He's had Lou for 16 years. ``He's almost like a son to me,'' Bufkin, 56, said.
Other pets had to be abandoned. The U.S. Humane Society of estimates that 69 percent of area households had pets, and that more than 600,000 were left on their own in the storm's wake. Five thousand have been rescued so far, Joel Goldman, a veterinarian in charge of the rescue effort, said today.
Animal welfare groups say they're fighting time and red tape to save as many of the rest as possible. They have been hindered by state-required holding periods that prevent animals from being moved from shelters in the areas where they're found, the groups say. That leads to a shortage of space for newly found pets.
Animals will continue to die needlessly unless the rules are relaxed, said Martha Armstrong, senior vice president of the U.S. Humane Society, who is in the area working on the rescue effort. ``Right now, what we need most is an immediate suspension of the holding-period rules,'' she said.
Requirement Waived
State officials today waived a rule mandating a 30-day local holding period for animals with tags, according to the Humane Society. That clears the way for hundreds of animals to be transported out of Louisiana to shelters in other states.
``We can point to some success here, but there are many more failures,'' Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society, said at a press conference today in Baton Rouge.
Bodies of dogs and cats litter the streets of the New Orleans area. Surviving animals are dehydrated, starving and beset by disease. ``Time is getting critical for pets that have been stranded,'' Goldman said. About 600 of the 5,000 rescued pets have been reunited with their owners, he said.
People who have lost pets can search photos and descriptions on the http://www.petfinder.com Web site to try to find them. Owners have until Oct. 15 to reclaim their pets.
Another state rule prohibiting evacuees from taking their pets with them helped swell the number of animals left behind, as well as the number of residents who refused to leave.
Bending Rules
``There are thousands of cases of people who stayed, and they're at risk because of federal and state policy,'' Pacelle said. ``We're troubled emotionally by the failures.''
In recent days, more than 23,000 people evacuated through the New Orleans airport were allowed to bring pets, according to Transportation Security Administration spokesman Christopher White.
Among the rescue centers contending with -- and bending --the rules is the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, Louisiana, northwest of New Orleans. While the center met its capacity of 1,308 animals days ago, more have been coming in than going out, the Humane Society's Armstrong said.
There are 400 volunteers at the Lamar Dixon site, representing animal welfare groups from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. More than 1,500 volunteers are expected to take turns working at the center, where veterinarians race by on golf carts and dog-walkers stroll amid rows and rows of pets housed in crates.
Goats and Horses
The animals at the center include ferrets, snakes, lizards, birds, chickens, goats and chinchillas. There are also 400 horses. About 3 percent of the volunteers have been being bitten by the stressed animals they're trying to help, Armstrong said.
``The magnitude of this just stops you in your tracks,'' said volunteer Cory Smith, 32.
Smith and Adam Parascandola were tending to abandoned dogs in New Orleans' battered Ninth Ward earlier this week. As the two Washington, D.C., residents poured food on the ground for a pair of dogs, one of them, a pit bull, attacked its tiny Pekinese companion.
Parascandola, 36, pulled the pit bull away, while Smith hurried the bloodied dog to a truck for safe-keeping. The pit bull whined and raced after its companion.
``She just got excited over the food, now she's upset that we're taking her friend,'' Parascandola said. He wound up taking both dogs back to Gonzales.
Some dogs in rural areas of St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans, have turned feral, running in packs and attacking whatever they can overcome, according to Parish President Henry ``Junior'' Rodriguez.
`Nice Pets'
``We had a pack of four pit bulls kill a horse the other day,'' Rodriguez said.
Sergeant Jason Teribery, 26, a member of the Colorado National Guard working on the recovery, has saved three dogs. He said that nine of the 12 dogs he started out with were shot when they wandered away from the checkpoint he mans.
Teribery said the remaining residents in St. Bernard were so frightened by the area's feral dogs they began shooting any animal without an owner.
``The people around here have been through a lot. They're pretty stressed out,'' Teribery said.
Parish Council Chairman Joey DiFatta still bears the bruises from his encounter in a flooded and abandoned evacuation center he was searching.
``This little dog came around the corner and I thought, `Maybe we can save it,''' DiFatta said. ``Then this big dog came around, and another one and another one. There must have been about seven big ones.''
When the dogs began snarling and advancing on them, DiFatta said, he and his companions dove out a window to safety on the gravel roof below.
``Two weeks ago those dogs were nice pets,'' DiFatta said. ``Now they're wild, doing anything they can to just survive.''
But Nagin wants people coming back?
60 percent of New Orleans residents are pet owners Blanco should have waived the state law allowing them to take their pets besides pit bulls. Blanco also waited forever to waive the time rule pets have to stay at one shelter which backed up shelter space.
There is more red tape at the state level that has juristicition than at FEMA.
Pictures at the news section of telegraph are a must. Great pictures of the pit bulls attacking the horse.
A pair of marauding pit bulls emerged from the edge of the bayou beyond New Orleans as the floods receded. Bred as fighting animals, their bloodlust had been sharpened by starvation. The dogs, which were wearing collars, had survived for more than two weeks but food was scarce.
The two pit bulls take turns attacking the bull
They stalked towards their prey, a lone bull: a massive beast more than 10 times their combined weight. Like a wrestling tag team, the bitch and the dog attacked with awesome ferocity, leaping at the bull's head and latching on to its muzzle.
The stricken bull repeatedly shook the dogs off, flinging them up to 15 feet in the air. But they took turns to keep up the attack, exhausting the bull which was by now smeared with blood. Even after the bull trampled the bitch, leaving it dazed, the dog stepped up its attack.
The terrifying assault highlighted the US military's concern that pit bulls would form packs and could attack or even kill soldiers.
It was too dangerous for an unarmed witness to intervene but The Sunday Telegraph flagged down a National Guard truck. Seeing what was happening, a soldier shot the bitch in the head.
The dog paused before resuming the attack. It took two bullets to stop it dead.
This was the article I meant to post.
The best thing you could do for your pets in a situation like this is before you leave is to put them down.
However, dogs in boats where there must be room for people is not logical.
Dogs running around shelters is not feasible.
Dogs on airplanes bringing people to Houston is not feasible.
Life in the Astrodome in Houston cannot be improved with dogs running around and/or barking and defecating is just not possible.
People must be the first priority.
They knew the looters would move in and take everything, AND THEY DID.
Pathetic to have to fear your fellow citizens more than the thought of flooding.
It's no wonder that so many refugees don't want to return to NO.
Ping
Gee, good thing the NO cops are confiscating guns, then. /sarc
I'd have rescued the dogs long before the human looters, gang members, etc. The dogs are higher on the evolutionary ladder.
I like the airborne pit bull in the first photo especially. =)
I wonder how many pit bulls are left in New Orleans? The "gangsta set" has found a fondness for owning this animals.
Did watch an interview with a resident who refused to leave his three Rotweiler's behind when he was offered a place in a rescue boat.
The last of the three photos was published yesterday. Many of us, yours truly included, thought it was a Photoshop job. Joke's on us. It was authentic.
lol - why would anyone have three?? N.O. is one of the largest markets for underground dog fights. I'm curious as to how many will have to be put down.
Just got my first mixed breed - Chocolate Lab and Pit. Friend at work has a purebred Chocolate Lab, and the neighbors have a pure bred Pit - and nature came together. The pup laying at my feet right now looks like a black lab, has a white chest blaze and a white chin, lab head, but the pit stance - wide shoulders and hips. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of dog she becomes.
YOU get YOUR priorities straight.
Humans first, then animals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
