Hurricane Katrina Rescue Diary

	September 21, 2005

Wednesday, September 21, 2005
From Kathy Warnick
President, Humane Society of Missouri

The Humane Society of Missouri has been selected by HSUS to receive approximately 200 dogs and cats arriving from hurricane-affected areas of the gulf.  These pets have been rescued by our Disaster Rescue Team and other animal welfare professionals working tirelessly over the last three weeks along the southern Mississippi coast, including the regions surrounding Biloxi, Gautier, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and Waveland. 

For the past several weeks, the pets have been housed in a temporary emergency animal shelter in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.  They are arriving Thursday by charter cargo plane from Bobby L. Chain Airport in Hattiesburg.  At the Spirit of St. Louis Airport, the pets will be loaded onto vehicles with drivers generously donated by Enterprise Leasing, into horse trailers donated by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and into Humane Society of Missouri vehicles.  All vehicles are either climate-controlled or ventilated.

The pets will be taken to a triage center already set up at our headquarters in St. Louis.  There they will be examined by veterinarians, vaccinated, photographed and, of course, provided with food, water and a comfortable, climate-controlled place to sleep. 

Many have these pets have been surrendered by owners who are no longer able to care for them; others are considered abandoned.  All will be held in foster care by the Humane Society of Missouri for at least 30 days to allow time for their owners to locate them.  To expedite reunions between people and pets, photos of these pets will be posted on hsmo.org and petfinder.com.  After 30 days, if an owner has not claimed the pet, the pet might be placed for adoption.

On Friday and Saturday, foster families who have already registered with the Hurricane Katrina Abandoned Pet Foster Program will arrive to take these pets into their homes and provide foster care.  Due to the overwhelming and heartwarming response from St. Louis area pet lovers, we are currently not accepting registrations for foster pet caregivers.  Please consider other ways to assist pets and pet owners at this time.

Due to the sudden influx of these 200 pets, the Macklind Avenue Adoption Center will be closed Thursday and Friday with reduced hours of 12:30 – 4 p.m.  on Saturday.  The Westport Area Branch Adoption Center will be closed on Thursday so that staff members from that location may assist the new arrivals at the St. Louis location, but will reopen with regular hours Friday and Saturday.  Both Veterinary Medical Centers of the Humane Society of Missouri will be open for business with regular hours Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Thank you for helping the pets displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Mississippi Team
From Debbie Hill, director of Rescues & Investigations

Sorry I don’t have photos to send. The computer froze up on me. I'll try to send some later.

We drove to Hattiesburg and spent the day assembling carriers and crates and doing other things to prep for the pets’ big trip to St. Louis.  We’re going to start loading our rescue vehicle very early tomorrow morning with the AC running until it’s full, and then we’ll drive to the airport to load those pets onto the plane. We figure it’s going to take two or three trips until the plane is full. 

This part of our mission is important to us as members of the Rescues and Investigations staff.  Usually, when we do a rescue in Missouri, we’ve investigated a case, worked with the pets’ owners to improve a bad situation and, as a last resort, remove the animals and take them to the safety of the Humane Society of Missouri where they have a chance at a better life.  This Katrina mission has been a whole different experience.  We find animals, we rescue animals from precarious situations, we’ve been given animals from owners or good Samaritans, but then we transport them up to Hattiesburg and the whole thing starts over.  There hasn’t been any closure for us – it’s just been this constant conveyer belt of animals moving up to Hattiesburg over and over.  We need tomorrow.  We’re looking forward to knowing that they’re going someplace safe and secure and happy.  And even if we don’t get to send the pets we’ve rescued, like the pets I pulled out of a rubble pile or the Weimaraner and Basset mix we climbed across a tree trunk to get, it’s okay with us, because the pets we’re sending all have stories, too; we just might not know their stories. 

After the plane is off the ground tomorrow, we’re heading to Louisiana.  There’s work for us at the Lamar-Dixon facility in Gonzales. 

We’re all getting calls from our families who are worried about us with Hurricane Rita coming in.  I promised them we would stay safe.  I’m keeping in touch in Tim and Brett in New Orleans.  They need to be out of the city tonight by the 6 p.m. curfew, and then they will camp as usual at the Gonzales facility for the night, maybe longer, depending on what Rita does.