Massive pet rescue effort is not without claws
Working together key for welfare groups

By Doug MacCash
Staff writer, Times-Picayune

Friday,September 9, 2005


A dog enticed from the roof of a flooded house into the arms of boat-born rescuers. Crates of mewing cats loaded into evacuation vans. Notices of stranded pets spray-painted on abandoned house fronts. These are some of the most widely-broadcast, iconic images of the New Orleans area's struggle to survive in the weeks after Katrina.

The removal of thousands of stranded pets from the flooded region by scores of professional animal rescuers from across the country is a self-evident success. Yet the head of one local animal support agency said the experience also was hampered at times by territorial infighting between some animal rescue groups that rushed into the disaster zone.

Despite profound communication problems, the early days were relatively well managed, with a single, unified list of requested rescue addresses and rescued pets, said Laura Maloney, director of the Louisiana SPCA. But she said in later days, the rescue effort sometimes dissolved into factionalism as organizations from all over the country vied for their slice of the disaster.

Maloney said she understands her colleague's duty to serve animal owners in need – and is quick to note the various groups saved some 3,000 animals in the region – but she feels the scattered efforts were at times counterproductive.

"It's like the rescue of a seeing-eye dog named Molly, she said. "It took us 6 hours to get her. If someone else was spending 6 hours doing the same thing, then that's 6 hours wasted."

Maloney attributed some of the infighting to "political wrangling of the national organizations for fund-raising opportunities," adding ,"I think they're all looking for the highest profile."

The various organizations have since arranged themselves into a somewhat uneasy shotgun marriage, Maloney said, allowing the rescues to take precedence over infighting.

"We're trying to organize the lists again," she said.

Shirley Minshew, employed by the Cape Cod-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, is a typical example of a professional animal handler that flooded the region in the days after Hurricane Katrina came ashore Aug. 29. Minshew, 52, is a veteran of more than 20 animal-threatening natural and man-made disasters, including oil spills to earthquakes. She said she's never seen such widespread need for her services as she has since arriving in New Orleans on Sept. 1.

On one recent sweltering afternoon, Minshew worked feverishly to remove several cats from a hot, feces strewn townhouse on Constance Street, first seducing them with gentle coos, then snatching them with cobra-quick jabs.

One gray tabby sunk its teeth into her forearm; another sliced her wrist with a claw. Each wound required quick first aid in the house's oven hot bathroom, a smear of blood and alcohol flowing into the tiny sink.

As one cat was captured, others would appear out of nowhere, ricocheting around the baseboards like furry pin balls. Eleven cats in all would be removed in what she described as a rescue of average difficulty, before the 5:30 p.m. curfew required rescuers to retreat from the city.

The captured cats were delivered to a veterinary triage center in a grocery store Uptown New Orleans parking lot, joining other cats and dogs treated by sweating volunteer veterinarians under the row of olive green tents.

Maloney said animals at the city's animal shelter on Japonica Street in Bywater had been evacuated to Houston prior to the hurricane. An emergency plan by the Louisiana SPCA and the Department of Agriculture utilized the Lamar-Dixon Exposition Center in Gonzales, 70 miles west of New Orleans on Interstate 10, where evacuated animals from across the region would be warehoused until they could be reunited with their owners.

In the first chaotic days when animal rescuers weren't allowed into the stricken city, many evacuating residents busied themselves rescuing theirs and neighbor's pets, sometimes risking their own lives to do it. Many other residents refused to leave with rescuers, fearing the fate of their pets. Some police and fire department rescuers welcomed pets into their evacuation boats with their owners; while others insisted animals be left behind.

The uncertain plight of animals contributed to the chaos.

Volunteer and animal control professionals arriving in Gonzales were separated into two groups: those with rescue experience would go to the flood site, while a larger group would stay behind to care for the animals as they arrived.

Maloney estimated that at any one time, 300 animal rescue workers were on hand, with 80 land-and-water rescuers work flooded streets.

While organizing the massive effort led to some friction between agencies, Lou Guyton, director of the southwest regional office of the Humane Society U.S. in Dallas, said that after leaping through some initial bureaucratic hoops, the overall rescue effort was a tremendous success.

"I think that it was one of the monumental rescues of all time," Guyton said. "The Louisiana SPCA had an excellent plan in place. Plans are wonderful, but nobody was ready for a disaster of this magnitude. The state gets to say who gets to come and who gets to go. I had to go through the official process to come in. The Louisiana SPCA was very helpful. Everybody wanted to help, and there was room for everybody to help."

In recent days, the pace of the rescue effort has slowed from the fevered first weeks of the storm's aftermath. Rescuers in the city are removing fewer animals as the streets dry, supplying them with food and water instead. And most rescue efforts may wrap up in the coming week, especially if residents begin flowing back into the neighborhoods.

But on Monday, the 12-person water rescue team that included Minshew continued its work, slogging through black, custard-thick mud in Gentilly. The drama of the early days had dissipated in the record heat, but there were still animals to be found.

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