Shelter From the Storm: Animal Hurricane Victims 
Still Need Help & Homes
by Mat Thomas

While many people no longer consider the fate of animals in the storm ravaged post-Katrina Gulf Area, relief is still needed. Incredibly, cats and dogs trapped in abandoned houses continue to be rescued more than three months after the storms first struck. At the same time, thousands of animals who escaped hurricane-damaged homes through broken windows or doors now roam the streets on the verge of starvation. Rescuers continue to set up food and water stations and lure in frightened animals who were friendly and loving prior to the storm.

Volunteers for In Defense of Animals’ (IDA’s) Project Hope animal relief team report that the crisis for animals in New Orleans is far from over. Hundreds of residential and commercial blocks where communities and businesses once thrived are now deserted except for former companion animals suffering from starvation, dehydration, disease and untreated injuries. With no humans living in these ghost towns, animals don’t even have trash to eat as a last resort. Tragically, it seems as if the situation may only get worse in the coming months because many of the now-stray animals are not spayed or neutered and have already begun to breed. According to one study, a single unsprayed female cat and her offspring can produce as many as 420,000 progeny in the space of just seven years, and a fertile dog and her young can produce 67,000 puppies in a mere six years.

Adding to the surviving animals’ misery, Louisiana’s Governor has declared the Hurricane Katrina rescue phase over, and has banned out-of-state veterinarians from volunteering their services to save the animals slowly dying in the greater New Orleans. Authorities have threatened out-of-state relief workers with arrest for attempting to give food and water to animals in Orleans Parish, and outside rescue groups have been ordered to leave the state and defer to local agencies, despite their inability to care for the remaining animals and resolve the imminent overpopulation emergency.

This shortsighted policy is forcing rescue organizations to abandon animals in their time of greatest need. Nevertheless, IDA refuses to give up on the cats and dogs whose will to live is evident in their continued survival, and the efforts of our Project Hope team will continue as long as the animals need our help.

· Volunteers are still needed. Please contact hurricanekatrinainquiries@idausa.org or (757) 553-8623 for more information on volunteering with IDA.

· Adopt an animal. Please contact hurricanekatrinainquiries@idausa.org if you can provide space for a needy animal.

· Give to IDA’s Hurricane Katrina Animal Relief Fund. Money is still desperately needed for food, medical supplies and transportation costs. To donate, send checks made payable to IDA with a note reading “for hurricane relief” to IDA, P.O. Box 11206, Norfolk, VA 23508. Visit https://secure.ga0.org/02/varescue and scroll down to donate online using your credit card.

· Visit http://ga0.org/campaign/Blanco to urge Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and other state officials to allow out-of-state veterinarians to provide much-needed services for the animals who have survived the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

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In Defense of Animals
131 Camino Alto
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Tel. (415) 388 9641 / Fax (415) 388 0388
ida@idausa.org

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