Hurricane Katrina Rescue Diary

	September 17, 2005

Saturday, September 17, 2005
From Debbie Hill, director of Rescues & Investigations

Mississippi Team

Debbie, Kyle and Carmen use the animal rescue slide they brought with them from St. Louis to transfer the hogs to vehicles

Besides rescuing dogs and cats, the Mississippi team assisted the Waveland Animal Control officer with the capture of three hogs.  Although hogs are domesticated, these three had been running loose for some time, were injured and not very nice. The officer used a tranquilizer dart gun to sedate them, which enabled us to use our rescue slide to load and transfer them to a veterinary facility. One female hog was suffering from infected lacerations to her legs.

This made me think of a potbellied pig we rescued a week ago. We were told of a pig who had been lying in a ditch near the town of Kiln – about 15 miles inland - for five days. We arrived on the scene, but he was not easily visible.  Some tree trimmers had been there ahead of us and had left some branches in the ditch. The pig had crawled under the limbs in a shallow run-off ditch along the side of the road.  He was horribly injured with a very bad laceration under his back leg.  We transferred him to a veterinary facility, but I haven’t heard how he’s doing.

Carmen transport another group of pets from Waveland to the temporary animal shelter in Hattiesburg.

New Orleans Team

Tim convinces a starving cat suffering from chemical burns to his tail to come with him. High-water marks are visible on the car windows.

Unable to bring more animals to the Lamar-Dixon emergency animal shelter until resident rescued animals are relocated, Tim and Brett in New Orleans are forced to endure seeing pets that could be removed, but can only leave food and water for them for the time being.  Of course, animals whose lives are threatened are plucked by the two rescuers.  One such rescue involved two dogs who were discovered swimming from porch to porch.

Tim and Brett establish feeding stations every few blocks.

When they leave their boat, Tim and Brett wear Tyvek boots to protect themselves from the ground, now contaminated with lead, oil, fuel and other chemicals left behind after the flood waters receded. 

Bonnie and Mette at the Lamar-Dixon emergency animal shelter in Gonzales, Louisiana

The most recent arrivals from St. Louis, Bonnie and Mette, have been caring for the pets housed at the Lamar-Dixon emergency animal shelter in Gonzales for nearly a week.

In that short time, these two professionals from the Humane Society of Missouri's St. Louis Veterinary Medical Center were promoted to Team Leader in their respective assignments.