Hurricane Katrina Rescue Diary
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September
17, 2005 |
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Saturday,
September 17, 2005
From
Debbie Hill,
director of Rescues & Investigations
Mississippi Team
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Debbie,
Kyle and Carmen
use the animal
rescue slide
they brought
with them
from St. Louis
to transfer
the hogs to
vehicles
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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.
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Carmen
transport
another group
of pets from
Waveland
to the temporary animal shelter in Hattiesburg.
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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. |
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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.
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Tim
and Brett
establish
feeding stations
every few
blocks.
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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.
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Bonnie
and Mette
at the Lamar-Dixon
emergency
animal shelter
in Gonzales,
Louisiana
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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.
All
copyrights in photographs and diaries are claimed and reserved
by the Humane Society of Missouri. |
