Animal Rescue Alerts 09-19-2005
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Monday September 19, 2005
Shameful Conditions at Lamar Dixon Expo Center, Gonzales
From: Jean at Puppymillrescue Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 8:34 PM Subject: shameful part 2
Permission to cross-post now granted! Get the word out because help is desperately needed.
From a CT shelter volunteer that just came back from New Orleans:
Hi All,
I got home late last night from Louisana. I'm still trying to process everything I've seen and done, not to mention trying to get the stench out of my clothes!
We went to the LSU temporary shelter, which is well run and organized. They really have their act together and it's a great place to volunteer.
Next stop was the Lamar Dixon Expo Center(aka Gonzales), the large "clearing house" facility. LA SPCA, HSUS, ASPCA, and VMAT are in a power struggle over who is in charge. It is total chaos. They don't have anywhere near enough people to care for the 2000 animals (average) and are turning away rescue groups bringing more animals in after sitting in line for hours.
This place is HUGE, and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Dogs and cats sit for days waiting for vet care even if illness is obvious. Many do not get out of their crates for 2+ days. There is no leadership, no system, and the animals are suffering. Vet care is obtained when they get the chance, and only after a request is put in the "inbox", which happens to be a bucket.
Volunteers are so burnt out they are in tears. There are some very sick animals who are put in makeshift "wards" in the barns. No bleach bucket outside for shoes, and no where near any acceptable level of sanitation. "Triage" doesn't happened regularly, not enough vets & vet techs. The Parvo stalls are in the middle of everything......people in & out of them constantly, and going directly in stalls w/"healthy" dogs.
All dogs & cats are kept in crates of all kinds. We got yelled at by VMAT for moving a puppy into a wire crate instead of a veri-kennel after being told to do so by HSUS. Don't know if it was because she was a pit pup and therefore most likely not going to make it out of that hellhole after all she'd been thru- she was air-vacced off the 610 bridge- or what.
There are huge buses, vans, RV's, tents everywhere, representives of different states for each large group. Animal Planet had their bus there, and PETA was driving in as we were leaving. That's all well & good, but the "negotiations" for control is disgusting. Whoever gets the gov't "grant" (aka "Contract") runs the show, and makes some nice $$.
There are pallets of food, water, crates, etc from Walmart, Petco, Petsmart, and a bunch of others. They just don't have enough people to clean & walk all these dogs, let alone feed, water, and med. They DESPERATELY need more people to do the basic stuff.
We hooked up w/Pasado Animal Rescue & did door to door searches for animal survivors in New Orleans. It is mind-blowing how many pets are still alive, though many are going down hill fast. Wednesday we did water rescue in an area that was still flooded, and pulled over a dozen dogs out of houses where they were trapped. We found animals alive in homes that were boarded up & barricaded, having to break in using any means necessary to get to them. The stench is unreal, and most homes are booby-traps- furniture and appliances thrown everywhere by the flood waters, the mold, sludge and god knows what makes walking in very dangerous. You DO NOT want to fall and get that stuff on you.
The situation changes hour by hour, let alone day by day. They are beginning to release animals to rescues at least. From what I saw, at least 50% of the dog population is Pitbull/Pit-mixes, approx 25% Rotties & Chows, and the remaining 25% every breed you can imagine. Some of the rescues are taking Pits & Rotties, tho Lamar Dixon may not be allowing them out, Pasado & LSU are. I know there are other groups as well. Save A Dog is still there and flying in volunteers. They are also doing door to door rescue in the city now.
IF ANYONE CAN GO PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
Hotels are not an option. If you go, plan on sleeping in a tent (bring your own), or your vehicle. Personally, I recommend the vehicle.....Fire Ants are everywhere, and from personal experience, they will find you. I spent 2 nights sleeping in a horse stall before they realized I was there (the ants), but once they did, it was all over. Their bite is EXTREMELY painful and leaves blisters that turn into something resembling a pimple. Nothing seems to kill them.
Showers are a luxury, if you can get one. Bring your own food & water, medical supplies, Rubbing Alcohol, bleach, etc to decontaminate yourself after handling the animals, who are still covered with dry toxic sewage.
This effort will be going on for months, and people will be needed all the way thru. Right now, the dogs & cats (and every other creature you can imagine) are critical. Many are dehydrated and starving, and it is a VERY ugly scene. I hope things will improve. If anyone goes now, be prepared to separate your personal feelings from what needs to be done just to get these animals some help. Hopefully it will improve over the next few weeks/months, and someone will be in charge and get things somewhat organized.
For those who can't turn off their feelings and just do the job as best they can, don't go now. Wait until it gets better. If you have a strong stomach, and can stay focused on just taking care of one at a time, you are needed now.
Feral dog packs and cat colonies were well established in New Orleans prior to the hurricane......now they are feeding off each other, and whatever they can find. It is truly horrible. The animal population problem is beyond belief. Out of some 300 dogs Pasado Rescue pulled, only TWO males were neutered, and I think ONE female. There are dogs who were severely neglected prior to the hurricane, mange is very prevalent, and god only knows what else. Most of the Pits have had there ears cropped back to their heads...."Home Jobs" done with scissors or knives.
The whole thing is just surreal. I did not dream at all while I was down there, probably due to exhaustion- we were up at 6 am and lucky to get to bed by 3 or 4 am. The nightmares are starting now, and I can't get the images out of my mind. I try to focus on the ones we've saved, and pray they get into homes.
Enough for now, this is too long as it is, and I'm starting to cry again.
B.
Do Something! Louisiana and Atlanta
From: Lana Asbi mailto:resq_k9@yahoo-dot-com Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 3:17 PM Do Something! Louisiana and Atlanta
9/19/05 Please bear with me. This may be long, although I’m actually too exhausted to type much. Please read thoroughly and with understanding. I will post/email pics as soon as I get them downloaded. But I’m going to state some facts and some heart felt opinions about Katrina’s aftermath and the animals we have all taken upon ourselves to care for.
First I want to THANK EVERYONE who made donations that made it possible to take down supplies and provide desperate help to the Gulf Area. Your donations made it straight to a very needy area.
Before you read the details of my weekend in this God-forsaken area, please make plans to get on the phone and write letters, fax ANY and EVERYone you can to get the damn government to send some help to vets/clinics/shelters/rescues. The conditions are unbelievable. You may not like some of what I have to say. But this is my story.
First let me dispel the fact that dogs/cats are not being allowed out of state. That is NOT true. There can be an agency to agency transfer. The animals must leave a group such as Louisiana Humane Society in Tylertown (which is where I was) to another licensed 501c3 group, that maintains the similar mission. The group’s policy must be to spay/neuter all animals BEFORE adoption, and have all vetting done first. THEN they must agree to post on their website that these animals were Katrina pets, and allow for them to be reunited with their families and agree to get them back to their families if at all possible. They must work actively to find foster homes until such a time is determined that they may never be reunited, as they may have been strays, then they may be placed for adoption.
Tylertown is the staging area for Best Friends and Louisiana HS. From there LHS daily sends crews to WinnDixie, which is basically ground zero for the Animal Rescue Effort. The conditions are deplorable. Its like working in a sewage line. From WinnDixie, crews are sent to go door to door, road by road, through the sludge, sewage, debris, dead bodies to find live animals.
Yes there are LIVE animals still trapped in buildings, around buildings, in homes, in basements, under boats. They are being found in horrible, stinky smelly conditions as well as being extremely emaciated and hanging on for bare life. Some of these animals are much like the ones we’d like to see “rehomed� here, as they not only are in extreme conditions now, they may have never seen kindness to begin with. These animals are traumatized, scared, hungry and sick.
Once an animal makes it to Tylertown, they are given a bath, examined by a vet, given shots, dewormed and evaluated. Most need fluids immediately. There are simply not enough Vets and VetTechs to give them aggressive help. They are triaged and allowed to drink bottled water and food. To say that they all have diarrhea is an understatement. If any of you have worked in a kennel environment during a parvo outbreak, then you MAY be prepared.
It is 98 degrees in the shade and the humidity is so thick you can taste it. And if you don’t know what Lovebug season is…. Look it up. Because it’s Now. There are fans everywhere to try to keep the dogs cool. The cats are inside the hospital in an extremely overworked air conditioned area. The sickest dogs are stacked inside as best they’ll hold.
Best Friends has millions of dollars and resources to help them. I visited their facility and you wouldn’t believe the hundreds of animals they are taking care of. It’s wonderful. Their volunteers have to endure the same heat and humidity that the others do, but they looked pretty organized. (Kudos to Kerry and Rebecca and their national connections). They are in it for the long haul and hopefully unite pets and owners.
Waveland and Gonzales also still need help. Donations are very good right now for dog food(other than special) and human supplies(other than continuous water needs). Of course due to sickness, diarrhea and contamination, the more OPEN wire crates and sanitizer the better &(surgical gloves). The only time the veri-kennel crates are used are when pets are leaving in air conditioned vehicles, leaving the area. It is simply too hot.
Showers are a luxury. They don’t do much good anyway, as you cannot walk 2 feet without becoming drenched in sweat, regardless of your task.
Due to the conditions, it is important to keep the animals hydrated and we hadn’t even pulled in the camp in the Penske truck before I was grabbed to start give fluids and deworm, and evaluate these two cute Husky pups. You could see their ribs even through their fluffy fur. These sisters were pulled from a sewer and given a decontaminate bath, but they still reeked of death. One of the girls had one brown eye and one blue eye, the other had 2 blue. My blue eyed girl was the sweetest and most timid. She was still wet from being decontaminated when I got a towel, and sat down on the moist midnight ground. I wrapped her in the towel snuggled her in my lap and started her on IV fluids. Against contamination protocol, I let her lick me on the nose. She was so thankful to be clean, warm and in the lap of someone who loved her enough to brave the horrid conditions to make her safe and start her on a healthy path.
I gave her sister, and two other needy dogs fluids before passing out in my tent (that I still had yet to pitch at 4am). I think I slept 30 minutes, after the temperature dropped to around 80. The camp was awake with motion at sunrise, as the needy animals started to stir. Of course I had to check on my “first patients�, so I checked on my girls. They were much more animated, for the fluids did the trick. They still were emaciated and had very stinky runny diarrhea, so needed to be medicated and watched for further dehydration as well as the other hundred or so. But before we could do that, they all had to be walked and cleaned (from diarrhea in their cages).
At 8am, we had our camp meeting, when we divided up the chores, got organized and decided who was going down to help K9 search and rescue go into the City, who was going to take supplies to WinnDixie, who was going to walk the big dogs, who was going to stay and work the hospital area, who was going to wash cages/decontaminate, wash bowls, sort food, help the vets, help the vet techs and keep water for everyone.
This is NOT for the light hearted. If you are afraid of bugs, don’t go, if you can’t take the heat, don’t go. If you can’t work with people who are edgy, irritated, tired, hot and the same type A personality as you are, don’t go. Don’t go if you can’t put aside your personal comfort to save animals and make a difference. It was NOT fun. Nothing about it was fun. It was rewarding. It was sad, I cried.
They don’t need food donations. They need people. They need Vets and Vet Techs. They need laborers, people to pitch tents, clean poop, clean more poop and then clean more poop. These pets need kind voices.
If you can send a vet down, ask your vet to go and get some people to pay them to go for a week. Go down and clean poop for a weekend if you can. Helping these people who have been down there for weeks, just giving them a break is very appreciated.
There are small places like LHS that still need people. Just because the ASPCA and the HSUS is there helping, don’t believe for one second that there’s enough help. Think about it.. if FEMA and the Red Cross, can’t even take care of the humans that they are supposedly PREPARED to, you can see that the HSUS and ASPCA surely can’t do it alone.
Do NOT believe that animals can’t leave. Those little girls left the next morning for Florida Humane along with 18 others that were stabilized. A group from Cincinnati took 12. IF your group DOES want to go down to pull, they simply need to get the appropriate paperwork to the groups.
Now. Let me tell you what no one wants to hear. About 70% of the dogs we were seeing, were Pits and Rotties. There is a DESPIRATE need for Pit and Rottie Rescues. I can assure you 99.9% of these dogs would be turned over to any licensed rescue that would immediately spay/neuter and nurse these dogs to health. I’ve seen more ribs on dogs this weekend than I’ve seen in 20 years of rescue.
I will admit that I’m not a Pit or Rottie fan.(Nor am I a Chihuahua or JRT fan for that matter-. I like Corgi’s, Shelties- fluffy herding dogs). But I have to say... that some of the sweetest dogs I have ever met, were these sad female pits that have lived neglected for most of their lives, and now find themselves in a pickle (for we all know the stigma attached to them). They literally melt into you and would become Velcro to your side if they could. I have never seen such tenderness, they cling like a baby chimp to you.
Trust me, they KNOW you are there to help. This hurricane may have actually SAVED their lives from becoming bait dogs.
For specific NEEDs that I saw: Dronital, Strongid, Fluids, and special food. Write and/or call Hills. They need Science diet A/D. That is canned and liquid enough to draw up in a 6cc syringe and force-feed these dogs that don’t want to eat from sickness and just depression. Saturday, a very skinny Rottie was “shutting down� we gave him fluids and I force-fed him a can of Eukanuba’s equivalent to A/D. He was alert Sunday when I left, and was receiving another 1000ml. I hope he continues to improve. As his ICU nurse, I felt very relieved to have him finally make eye contact with me. I hope he makes it.
I’ll have a video clip of a happy reuniting a man with his White GSD Mix after he fought for 8 days to get back to his dog after being forcefully evacuated without her. Happy stories give the warm fuzzies, but there are still those sewage dogs that are hanging on. Even the ones that are now “safe� still need care while they are waiting in the hopes their families may return for them.
Now, this is going to piss off a lot of people, and I too have mixed feelings about it… but like Janet Weiss, I feel like we have enough animals here to worry about without trying to spend all of our resources bringing in hundreds of dogs to Atlanta. Now, do I think we should turn our backs? Of course not. I put my money where my mouth is and I took supplies down, labored tirelessly in the bugs and humidity and I saved lives. IF I saw the need to bring back a particular dog with a particular need that a particular group could help with, I may have agreed to bring it back. BUT not at the expense of killing another dog that’s already entrusted me to care for him.
Of course right now, there is a public outcry for help. We, as compassionate animal people, must do what we can or we wouldn’t be ourselves. So we will try to make room, for “just one more�. That’s great, but lets not forget about the ones that will die in our backyard tomorrow. There has to be BALANCE between helping the ones here and the Emergency victims that have fallen into our laps through no fault of their own. We can help both, by using this outpour of help, by educating the public to the ones that are needy here too. Let them know that the REASON we can only take 10 from Katrina is because there are 20 dying in Spaulding, 30 in Dekalb, 15 in Gwinnett and 130 in other Atlanta area communities this week.
IF you can use this out pour properly, we can have something great like what happened at PAWS last week. The Katrina pets didn’t actually stop in Atlanta via the convoy, but because the awareness was made that PAWS is a stopping point, they had a stellar adoption. Why not let your group say every $20 of your adoption fee will go to pay for vet care for a needy Katrina dog, then send it to the area that needs help. Save up $500 to send a vet or tech down to help.
But goodness people, we ALL have to work together to STOP PET OVERPOPULATION or nothing will change. We cannot adopt our way out of this problem. It will take mandatory altering. It will take legislation. It will take more than one person at organized pickets. It will take you voting for local legislation and getting rid of those that do not take on our cause.
There is NO excuse for another dozen animals dying today in Louisiana and MS, just because the mayor didn’t get off his butt and ask for state help and then for the governor not to get off her butt and ask for federal help. We all have lives and still manage to volunteer selfishly to make a difference. These people get PAID to keep our best interest at heart.
You will have to make this issue a PEOPLE health issue in order to get politicians to listen. Well, the people that I know that went into the sludge this weekend were risking their lives to save animals. There is no electricity or water to drink or even shower in. There is a chance of all kinds of diseases making their way back to god knows where ever.
I beg you to get involved. I hope something somewhere in all of this, touched you and you’ll find what way you want to help, and where you can get involved and make a difference. Whether it is standing outside Bill Garrett’s house with signs that say “Why isn’t AHS spaying their animals with the millions of donations?� or whether it is asking Vernon Jones why he has animal people moving out of his county because they can’t marry someone who has a cat, if they already have 3, or whether it is standing outside of Petland asking them why they sell KNOWN puppy mill dogs that are going to be sick and contribute to the dogs that end up as owner surrenders when they can’t afford to pay for health issues, or if it’s working on making dog parks, training dogs so the human/dog bond is stronger, or helping trap feral cats, or by going to Tylertown to help take care of the animals there, or by getting your vet to send fluids.
No matter what you do. Please. DO SOMETHING.
If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
"I hope to be at least half as great as my dogs' think I am"
Thanks for listening to me.
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