Also: For people who left animals in homes or at boarding facilities in the New Orleans, please call 225-578-6111 and leave your name, address of confined animal, species, number of animals, and when food would have run out. They will go house-to-house as soon as they can. The phones are being manned by the LSU Veterinary School and Department of Agriculture.

The Galveston County Animal Shelter in Texas City is receiving animal refugees also. Again, if you can foster just one cat or dog, call the County Shelter in Texas City immediately at 409-948-2485

Both shelters were already filled beyond capacity before taking in refugee pets. Please help. Foster a dog or cat if you can or adopt a pet that already needed a home to make room for the refugees!

As soon as the groups on the ground have approval, which should be today, they'll be going in. Animals are being brought to the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, LA, St. Landry Rd, which is serving as a staging center for displaced animals (other locations may be added as needed).

LA SPCA and Lafayette Animal Control were just giving the okay (actually they just kind of said, we're going in) to rescue animals. Some animals are already at the LaMar Expo Center, and Louisiana Fairgrounds

The ASPCA first group is on the grounds in Gonzales and another group is heading out tonight.

LaMar Expo Center, and Louisiana Fairgrounds and is accepting food, bowls, leashes, crates, etc. Items can be drop shipped: The Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, 9039 S. St. Landry Rd., Gonzales, LA 70803. (225) 621-1700.

You can send money to any of the organizations that are doing the work. 100% of the funds the ASPCA collects will be given to the shelters in the three states.

ASPCA
Humane Society
Petfinder

Rescue efforts have begun - let us know if you need a pet rescued! Sign up for Rescue HERE

Rescued pets have been taken to the following locations:

LaMar Expo Center
Louisiana Fairgrounds
East Baton Rouge Animal Control
The Houston SPCA
Toney Berger Center on Highway 290/Austin
St Francis Animal Sanctuary in Tylertown

1-225-578-6111

With the help of many generous and concerned people, 175 pets once boarded at the Metairie Small Animal Hospital have been safely transported out of the New Orleans area and can now be reunited with their owners. As soon as possible, hospital staff are asking owners to please pick up their pets at the Colliseum located at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine in Baton Rouge, LA. A Veterinarian from the hospital will stay at the Colliseum to tend to those pets needing medications or recovering from surgery. All animals have either tags or ID chips and can be easily identified.

LaMar Expo Center
9039 St. Landry Road
Gonzales, LA

Louisiana Fairgrounds
1751 Gentilly Blvd.
New Orleans, LA

East Baton Rouge Animal Control
2680 Progress Road
Baton Rouge, LA
(On the Metro Airport grounds behind Parish Prison)

St Francis Animal Sanctuary
97 Obed Magee Road
Tylertown, MS
Based in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana

The Houston SPCA
900 Portway Drive, Houston, Texas

Just received word that there is NOT - repeat NOT - a shoot to kill order for pets abandoned due to hurricane Katrina.

The Jefferson Parish Animal Shelter said it has rescued over 100 animals from evacuees at Interstate 10 and Causeway Boulevard. The shelter issues an urgent appeal for national pet and veterinarian organizations to bring trucks to the animal shelter in Tylertown, Miss., and take animals away to places where they can be cared for.

Jefferson Parish Animal Shelter
#1 Humane Way
P.O. Box 10640
Jefferson, LA 70123
Phone: (504) 736-6111

To donate please call 866-275-3923 or donate on-line at http://www.aspca.org/disaster
THANK YOU!

Transportation to your home will be provided!

Please email: msedpets@earthlink.net
Include:
First Name Last Name
City
State
Your Vet's #

Pets that have been picked up will be posted starting Tuesday, September 6 at http://katrina.petfinder.com

Please check the page frequently.

In Louisiana, people reporting stranded animals should call: 1-888-773-6489

Outside LA, people should call: 225-925-3980

You can also email: katrina@ldaf.louisiana.gov

Dear everyone who prayed and helped to make this happen,

Dave found Franco and Zooey, our orange and gray manx cats, alive and well in a shelter in Gonzales. We do not know who rescued them from Plum Street, in New Orleans but we are eternally grateful. Dave and the cats are en route to Shreveport, where I will reunite with them all around midnight. They are going to have some very good living for a while with "grandparetns" here in North Louisiana.

I will send you a pic sometime in the future. I know everyone will appreciate this bright spot of good news. I will continue giving and giving to these organizations who are saving so many lives.

Thanks so much for everything,

Kathryn

Cindy from Sugar Glider Express was able to get into Jefferson Parish and rescue her sugar gliders who were all safe since her aunt had stayed behind and was caring for them.

Just wanted to let you know and thank you again for your wonderful efforts on behalf of the pets of the areas stricken by Hurrican Katrina.

Toni

Right now we are trying to get a rescue team together to get down there to help.

PLEASE email us at katrina@dogdetective.com if you can help.
Post from craigslist:

I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT IS GOING ON.
I was in Waveland this morning (I`m a news reporter). There are dozens of injured and emaciated dogs and cats roaming the streets and the beach, and NO animal rescue is doing anything for them. The Waveland shelter is closed, the animals have no food and water. When I stopped my car, I was immediately surrounded by half a dozen friendly dogs - labs, australian shepherds, dachshunds - who have been abandoned by their owners and now are looking for help since seven days now!!!
I took two of the most serious injured to the Humane Society shelter in Gulfport, but they are already at capacity.
I will bring a trunk full of dog and cat food and water tomorrow early morning into Waveland again and will try to help those pets as good as I can. But I`m basically on my own.
I intend to bring out two more injured dogs/cats on my way back to Mobile.
Is there ANYONE in Mobile or surroundings willing to take one or two and foster them back to health? I will even bring them to Mobile.
I´m from Phoenix and have to return Friday.
I cannot understand why NO rescue organisation is present down there.

We have rescue on stand by to go in, bring supplies and transport the animals to shelters that have offered to help.

If you are one of the shelters, we will contact you tomorrow if he can get the animals out.

If you have volunteered to help, again, we will contact you tomorrow if rescue groups are allowed in to get the animals.

We will also be posting updates on this page.

Thank you all so much for your offers to help the animals. I am sure we will have many more situations like this in the days to come and it is nice to know that you are out there.

Trucks are heading out from Atlanta tomorrow and Friday with supplies. The rescue for Waveland, Bay St. Louis and Gulfport will be coordinated by the Mobile SPCA who is working with the HSUS in the region.

We need more supplies! Crates, pet food, leashes, kennels, etc. If you have supplies that you can get to Atlanta by tomorrow or Friday morning at the latest - please email us at katrina@dogdetective.com

God Bless Home Depot!

We will be collecting supplies at the Home Depot on Sydney Marcus in Atlanta from 9-3 tomorrow. The first truck will be leaving at noon tomorrow so get there early if you can!

JUST BACK FROM WAVELAND WITH RESCUED PETS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 2005-09-07, 6:14PM CDT

I`m the news reporter who first posted the SOS for the pets in Waveland, MS yesterday after seeing their deplorable situation.

Here are a current update on the situation and some urgent requests.

A small convoy with volunteers from Mobile and myself went into Waveland this early morning and just returned. We were able to evacuate more than a dozen abandonned/injured pets (large and small dogs, cats and a duck) and bring them back to Mobile, AL where they are treated right now. My special thanks to a wonderful vet from Mobile who did a really incredible job getting them out of mud-filled rubble and extremly small crawl spaces together with the volunteers. We were also able to set up some food and water stations. We estimate that there might be still several hundred abandonned pets left down there waiting for urgent help.

Also I would like to thank the hundreds of people who called and emailed me yesterday offering any kind of assistance. My original post was cross-posted on an unknown number of websites, which led to the fact that I was receiving calls every five seconds. As I am concentrating on forwarding important information regarding the current conditions in Waveland to relevant rescue groups right now, PLEASE DO NOT CALL my cell phone number any more. I need to keep the line open for matters related to immediate rescue efforts. Everyone and every rescue group who has volunteered to adopt, foster or pick up a pet in the regional area: Your information will be used to contact you if necessary. At this time, there seems to be enough space to board rescued animals. But this situation might change. Everyone who has volunteered to fly down from areas further away to help personally, send money or has asked me or groups involved to ship animals: Thank you for your generous offer, but the best way to help is - in my opinion - to adopt a pet from your local shelter to make space for new arrivals due to Katrina, coming not only from Waveland.

I have been made aware last night and today after my return that several groups plan to go into Waveland very soon. I also heard that the Humane Society was planning some kind of action, but we did not see any other rescue efforts as of today. I also heard that the HS has set up shelter places in Mississippi, and they intend to match rescued pets from Katrina-affected areas with the owners who abandonned them. My personal opinion is that those pets will have a much better future with new owners that might not decide to leave them behind in times of crisis (I personally do not care about the reasons for leaving pets behind).

Everyone who has contacted me after yesterdays post: Please be assured that help is on the way and every major animal rescue organisation is informed about the current situation. What really needs to happen now is that more groups go in fast and carefully search the area. Today we saw a huge trailer park in Waveland (Lowerbay Str. corner Lakeshore drive) where almost everyone seemed to have left a pet behind. Most of those pets are scared and/or injured, and it takes patience and ideas to get their trust. We left food and water at most places where abandonned pets were too shy and traumatized to approach us.

A message to the few mentally challenged who called me yesterday and accused me of running a scam to collect money for personal use: You stole my precious time, please get a life. I WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY MONEY FROM ANYBODY, please donate to your local shelter or a rescue organisation. And I really don´t want to share my opinion here in regard to that person named Aaron Brown from CNN.

Please everybody be assured that my SOS call has alarmed major rescue groups. I hope they will go in soon - not only to Waveland, but other affected areas where pets are still waiting for urgent help they won´t be getting from their previous "owners".

Thank you all very much.

Further updates will be posted as soon as I am aware of new developments.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/840979272?ltl=1126150622

Atlanta Drop off Location for Katrina Pet Supplies

We will be collecting supplies at the Home Depot on Sydney Marcus in Atlanta

Sep 09, 2005 10am - 2pm

Behind the big rust colored storage container in the parking lot

Rescue Teams from HSUS and SPCA are in Waveland as of yesterday. Supplies arrived last night. More to follow...

Pet rescues have NOT repeat NOT stopped in New Orleans.

Thanks to all of the donations from across the country from individuals and companies, the pets now have enough pet food coming in! YEAH!!!

What they desperately need now is shelter. The rescue groups are running out of places to put rescued pets - some groups are considering halting rescue operations because of the lack of cages. We can't let this happen! We need wire cages! A lot of the dogs are outside under tents and it is too hot for plastic carrying cages - we have to get wire cages to them!

We are asking everyone in Atlanta to scour their neighborhood, ask your friends, go to the pet stores! The Pet Supply Store on Piedmont Road is giving a discount to anyone that buys a wire cage for a Katrina dog (or cat).

We are arranging shipping and hope to leave with the cages on Sunday night - Monday at the latest. We will be posting a drop off time and location - probably the Home Depot on Sydney Marcus - as soon as we have confirmation on when the truck can leave. Please help if you can!

There are health concerns and dangerous conditions. Things change minute to minute. You will need contacts, immunizations, supplies and experience to handle these conditions. Please think rationally - we all want to help the animals but there is no point in wasting your time or putting yourself in danger.

Just got an update from New Orleans - they need flat bottom bowls - the dogs are knocking their bowls over and wasting what little water they have.

Email us at katrina@dogdetective.com and we will send you the locations - Duluth, Marietta & Atlanta.

Rescue operations have been suspended in New Orleans. There will be a decision today at 3 pm EST on whether or not to reopen Gonzales - we will keep you posted.

Thank you Atlanta! A load of wire crates arrived at 9:30 last night in Gonzales and another shipment left this morning for multiple destinations in LA and MS.

We can get you in if you are willing to do some dirty work! After all they have been through these animals deserve a clean cage! 3000 animals are waiting... Please help, HSUS desperately need replacements.

Please go here and sign up: http://dogdetective.com/katrina-pet-rescue.cfm put "Cages" in the Comments/Notes box.

You need:

• CDC recommends vaccinations against Tetanus/Diphtheria & Hepatitis B (Info on series of Hepatitis shots here: http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p2011b.htm)
• Your Own Food - enough for however long you plan to stay
• Your Own Shelter - tent, car, sleeping bag
• Your Own Gas - 9/16 Update: Gas situation has improved
• Heavy Duty Gloves
• Work Boots
• Mosquito Repellant
• Painters Mask & Eye Goggles
• Long & Short Sleeve Shirts
• Pants - Cargo pants work well
• A large Truck or Van - if possible, not required

Please sign up - you will need contacts to get into the center - do not just take off and drive down there - you need info!!!

Rescue operations scheduled to start again tomorrow.

Rescue operations resumed this morning! Yeah!

Warning for Leptospirosis

If you have come in contact with animal urine, or water that has been contaminated with animal urine, and you have the following symptoms:

• Fever
• Chills
• Muscle aches
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea

Leptospirosos can be treated with antibiotics!!!

More information here: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/leptospirosis_g.htm

There is mandatory 30 day quarantine on all animals. After this and once the animals have been checked out, microchipped and every effort has been made to reunite them with their rightful owners, they will start sending the animals to state and local Humane Societies and SPCAs. A that point you can go and adopt an animal.

If you really and truly want to help, you will go to your local shelter and adopt a pet to make room for the Katrina animals when they come in.

All shelter volunteers need to go the www.hsus.org to fill out an application to volunteer which Chris Wolf will compile and deploy. This is for shelter help only, not veterinary staff!

Hattisburg shelter still needs wire cages

Hello All - Sorry it has taken me a couple of days to recover from the trip but I wanted you all to know how thankful I was for your support and the difference that we made. The experience was humbling to know that so many people cared and wanted to help. When we left Atlanta, the uhaul was completely stuffed to the top rails with bags of dogfood, every kind of animal supply you could possibly think of, waders, gloves, masks, over the counter antiseptics and medicines. It seems like it took forever to get to Gonzales. The path of destruction was unbelievable, just miles and miles of utter devastation, it really did look like a bomb had been dropped. Many areas were still without power and phone service, it was hard to find food in some areas and most of the areas had early curfews at night and the whole towns closed at 6pm. We went to the HSUS shelter in Gonzales, LA. It was the closest triage point to New Orleans.

First thing we did upon arrival was to register and to unload the supplies you had donated. It took several people and a lot of time with all of the things you had donated. As well as individual donations from you, I was also able to get donations from Allatoona Animal Hospital, Kennesaw Pet Center and Tri State Animal Hospital. Everyone was so generous, and you can see the piles of supplies that had come in from volunteers including YOU. As the supplies were taken off the trailer, they were organized into sections so they could be used efficiently. I also had a friend make up rescue magnets for the car, as we had been told this would help us in getting access to harder to reach places. Everywhere we went, people would praise us for our efforts, cheer us on and some of them even offered money for gas.

While I wanted to be able to bring some animals back, they were not allowing them to be taken from the Lamar -Dixon shelter unless you were a humane society wishing to take large numbers. The Lamar-Dixon site was in Gonzales. It was a huge agricultural arena with six different huge open buildings there being used to house the rescued animals. The animals would come in and go thru triage and then either go on to volunteer handling or to the vet and vet tech areas for further treatment. Rescue groups would bring in vans of animals at night after they had spent the entire day in rescue. Rescue was being done by both organized groups and regular citizens. Also, they were leaving food and water behind for the animals that were too afraid of human contact at that point. Some of the rescues we heard of were amazing. I myself was not really interested in going into the city for rescues, but rather in helping with transport and at the shelter. I did make several pleas for taking animals back home, but the system was to get them out in as large a group as possible to the Humane Societies In order to do this, each dog had to be microchipped, shots given, photos taken for identification and the last step was to be released by the State Health Department.

The animals that were released to the volunteers at the shelter were sent to various sections where a team leader would have responsibility for about 30 - 50 animals. There were about 2000 - 2500 there in total while I was there. The team leader was responsible for having the animals housed in correctly sized crates, making sure their paperwork went with them and to take care of feeding, watering and walking the animals, which was done on a schedule. There were bathing areas, crating areas, crate cleaning areas, walking areas, etc there on site. This place must have been about 10 acres or more. Volunteers were needed for all of these duties as well as just walking thru and talking to the animals, trying to calm them, giving them treats and most of all, just giving them love and attention. People who had lost pets were coming thru as well, some with children, trying to find their best friends. Some were united.

It was a complete whirlwind trip with no time for rest or much of anything else but trying to help the animals. While I didn't stop to take any pictures, my friend Cathy did take some.

I cannot thank you enough for myself and the animals for your generosity

I just got back from New Orleans. I did just pack up an go and everything went very well. There are several organizations set up down there that are EXTREMELY well organized. I was with Noah’s Wish and they are doing a great job down there. They were soooo thankful to have me there. They need help in many areas. Most of the people going down there are not in the water in New Orleans, but are helping to walk dogs, feed kittens, clean cages, cut up sheets, intaking new animals, helping to unload the trucks with donations, running errands, etc. Just make sure you hook up with a group, HSUS or Noah’s Wish. They are doing great work and they need help right away – some of these people have been working for weeks and need a break. We worked from 7:30 am to 10:30 pm only stopping for meals. One night we went back in at 11:30 pm to intake more pets that were turned away at another facility that were coming to us (critical care) We had to set up crates and a triage unit in one hour. We ended up getting back to the DISA building at 3:30 am and going back the next morning at 7:30 am ---- not a single person complained. These pets are in critical shape and help is needed. You don’t have to be involved in the rescue efforts in New Orleans – there are a million other things that need to be done. Please help them – the pets only have so much time left and there are SOOOOO many of them left to rescue. I will give you more updates on the rescue effort later – I need to take a nap. I never worked so hard in my life – but I would do it again (and I will) in a heartbeat. Thanks

We are answering email as fast as possible - thanks!

If you are a Humane Society or SPCA in LA, MS, AL or TX and need foster homes, let us know! We have people in every state ready and waiting!

A blind man who arrived here in Houston - Christchurch Baptist Red Cross Shelter, desperate to find his 7 year old Seeing Eye Dog, Jake. He was rescued from 1902 Industry & Allen streets in New Orleans, but no room for dog in boat. Dog was microchipped and had a collar with 2 rabies tags.

Call church if any info 281-866-8377. THank you so much.

Rescue workers need to be replaced. Please sign up to go!

You can sign up here:
http://dogdetective.com/katrina-pet-rescue.cfm

OR

call 1-800- HUMANE 1

Glad to report that our Seeing-Eye dog has been FOUND. He was still in his owner's house on Industry Street - dehydrated & hungry but okay. Thanks to the National Guard who went back and checked. God is good. Bless you for your work with the animals.

Please send to:

Forest County Extension Office
Barn C -
Attn: Shelter Manager
952 Sullivan Drive
Hattiesburg, MS 39401-2714

All medical staff should email an application through:

www.ruralareavet.org
If you show up there without prior approval, the MS state vet will send you away.

Thank you to all of the people that have emailed offering to donate money to help the pets in New Orleans. Please be aware that Dog Detective does not accept monetary donations. If you would like to support Dog Detective, please just spread the word about our site so we can help people find their dogs!

If you would like to contribute to the rescue effort in New Orleans, we suggest purchasing a wire crate or flea prevention medicine and shipping it to the HSUS triage hospital in Hattiesburg.

Forest County Extension Office
Barn C
Attn: Shelter Manager
952 Sullivan Drive
Hattiesburg, MS 39401-2714

Or

You can donate to the ASPCA or HSUS

We will be posting information on which shelters need assistance in the following days, so check this page for ways that you can help. Thank you.

We need you! Please sign up here: Katrina Pet Rescue if you have a cargo van or horse trailer (with mister or air conditioned would be fabulous - it's hot down there!!) and can help the animals stranded because of Katrina.

The animals need water and this was a great idea of how to get it to them - please sign up here if you can help! http://dogdetective.com/katrina-pet-rescue.cfm

You can send or drop off plastic kid pools here:

LaMar Dixon Expo Center
9039 S Saint Landry Road
Gonzales, LA 70737

Please go to http://hsus.org and click on "Volunteer" to sign up!

HSUS needs volunteer firefighters and policemen to help break into buildings to rescue animals.

Call:
202-367-5446
OR
202-367-5445

ONLY for people to call if an animal was left behind in someone's home and the address has not been given to a humane society and the animal needs to be rescued. Important not to clog this number with other requests since this is an emergency hotline for dying animals.

In response to the many offers of donations, Dog Detective has set up this page where you can donate to individual volunteers that have rescued pets from hurricane Katrina. Dog Detective does not receive any of this money and all donations go directly to the volunteers listed.

Please go to: Donate to Volunteers

Thank you all for your generous offers.

As you can imagine our cell phone bills have been astronomical! We would like to thank Sharon Downs at Cingular for her assistance!

There is an urgent need for volunteers to come for three day shifts in Louisiana to help starving dog and cat victims of hurricane Katrina. HSUS and other organizations need people to staff what is now the nations largest animal shelter. Which is in truth, nothing more than a makeshift facility with over 2,000 animals. We also need people to go into the city and feed and rescue thousands of starving animals. Volunteers need only report to:

La Mar Dixon Center Command Center
9039 S. Saint Landry Road
Gonzales, LA

Anytime - Day or Night

Be prepared for a chaotic situation. Bring a tent, sleeping bag or be prepared to sleep in your car. There is also an air conditioned area with cots. People that are physically fit and can enter New Orleans must bring sturdy shoes, long pants, sun visor or hat, crow bar and a utility knife. If you can just commit to a three day shift you will save more animals than we can express. Please come now! Just do it.

This request is coming from:

David Meyer
Executive Director
1-800-save-a-pet.com
Acting Feed & Rescue Commander
HSUS at La Mar Dixon

-----------------------------------------------
Reply to: anon-98760462@craigslist.org
Date: 2005-09-20, 10:59AM CDT

PLEASE COME NOW!!!!!!!!! we are DESPERATE for reliable people to assist in feeding and watering animals trapped in homes. We have thousands of animals still trapped WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER AFTER 3 WEEKS! We do not have enough rescuers to save them. Volunteers are stressed and overworked and heading home. We need as many people as are able to come down immediately with tents and sleeping bags. If you have a van, SUV, ryder truck, ETC. you're expecially needed since you can ferry in supplies. Report to barn 5 when you arrive or go to the 6am meeting to be deployed with a rescue team. Just come, no need to respond to this email.

THANK YOU!!!!!!

PLEASE CROSS POST

Lamar Dixon Coordinator

Pet rescuers went in because of an SPCA sign on the door that read "1 alive SPCA". They assumed it was a pet but a found a elderly woman laying in her bed. When the medics arrived they told them she had cancer. She was taken Ochner Hospital.

The woman had family photos in her home, if you know who she is please contact the hospital!

Do not evacuate without your pet - there is no organization that you can depend on to rescue them. They may die if you do not take them with you.

All rescuers are leaving New Orleans. Last of the dogs rescued are being transported out from Winn Dixie crew in New Orleans now.

HSUS at la Mar Dixon in Gonzales will stay open, they are NOT evacuating as of this posting.

Sign this petition to support The Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act (PETS Act, H.R. 3858), currently in Congress, that will protect pets in federal evacuation plans, and urge officials to save currently stranded pets.

Sign here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/256230705

Mapquest builds application in two days for pet rescuers in New Orleans. This application maps pet locations to help rescuers pin point abandoned pets. This will save the rescuers valuable time and increase their effectiveness, enabling them to get to the animals that need help sooner. An incredible effort done in record time, we can not thank Mapquest enough. Special thanks go out to Sandy, Hiroko, Matt and Corey at Mapquest for making this application a reality. This is a tool that can be used in any emergency and will save thousands of pets, not only from Katrina but in the years to come.

If you have NOT reported your pet to the HSUS, or signed up with Dog Detective, make sure that your pet is on the list by signing up here: http://dogdetective.com/rescue-dog-sign-up.cfm

Operations were suspended because of Rita but La Mar is back in business again. They will be accepting dogs again tomorrow and all volunteers with any rescue experience are encouraged to join the effort.

Certified Humane Societies with transportation for animals are desperately needed to transport and shelter animals.

Just because you reported your pet to the HSUS or LASPCA, it does not mean that your pet has been rescued! Your pet may still be trapped in your home.

We are working on a way to make this data available to you but you still need to try to get to New Orleans to get your pet - there is no time to waste, pets that are found now are barely clinging to life - you must not wait - go now!

With thousands of animals still trapped in homes, La Mar Dixon is closing

Link to La Mar Dixon Memo 09/29/05

Link to CNN Video: http://www.cnn.com/video/partners/clickability/index.html?url=/video/us/2005/09/30/cooper.dogs.shot.cnn

One of the volunteers called us today and reported that there are three schools with dogs that have been shot, not one. They also said that the animals were all healthy, had food and water and contact information had been left. The volunteer has taken photos but due the number of children that use this site, we will not be posting any photographs.

HSUS has stopped rescue operations. The few remaining volunteers that have carried on have no place to take animals and no one to care for them once they are rescued. Last we heard the LASPCA had taken over rescue operations with eight animal control officers. Eight is not enough. We have a list of thousands that still need to be rescued.

We will never understand a lot of things that have happened in the last month. Why did people leave their animals chained under their house when they knew that a category five hurricane was coming? Why weren’t the animal rescuers let into the city right away? Why didn’t the organizations in charge have a better plan? Why wasn’t rescue information getting to the rescuers? Why were volunteers turned away? Why were injured animals turned away? Why were pets massacred at the schools in St Bernard’s Parish?

At this point, it’s too late to fix any of those things - but it is NOT too late to rescue the animals that remain. The ones that are in pain, locked in attics and bathrooms, that haven’t eaten in weeks and can’t understand why this is happening to them.

It’s not too late. It’s cruel and inhumane to let this continue when there are organizations with the funding and resources to stop it.

Any animal that dies now will not die because of Katrina, they will die because no one cared. They are starving to death while you read this - DO SOMETHING

After weeks of requesting (begging) - and being promised - updated rescue requests from HSUS, we were finally able to track down Ed at Petfinder and get the data we needed to get urgent rescue information into the rescuers hands. Thanks goes out to Ed at petfinder.com!

We will be merging these databases in the next week or so and petfinder.com will take over mapping rescue requests for the rescuers on the ground.

Volunteers that stayed behind are still being allowed to use the La Mar Dixon Center in Gonzales as a headquarters until Oct 15th - they are not allowed to bring animals in but they meet at 9pm behind Barn 1 to plan the next day's rescue. Please go ASAP if you can.

We are unable to confirm reports one way or another. We have conflicting reports on both sides from people at La Mar Dixon.

Correction:We have spoken with Lucy, an HSUS employee who is answering the phone at La Mar and being paid for her time there. Apparently, the report that there are no HSUS employees at La Mar is not true. She has told us that she and some other HSUS employees will be there until the 15th of October.

Villalobos Rescue Center in Aguadulce, CA has agreed to take in the Pit Bulls from Lar Mar Dixon. The dogs are on a flight now headed to California.

The rescue center desperately needs your help! They will need to build 40 kennels to house the dogs and they need volunteers to help care for the dogs. They already have 150 Pit Bulls at the rescue center and their resources are maxed out. Please help!
You can reach Tia at 661-268-0555

Villalobos Rescue Center is 45 minutes north of Los Angeles above Canyon County.
http://www.vrcpitbull.com/

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- "The first major airlift of dogs from the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast left Louisiana on Sunday, carrying about 80 pets to new temporary homes in California.

The Continental Airlines flight from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was chartered for about $50,000 by Texas oil tycoon Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeleine, in a movement dubbed "Operation Pet Lift."

Some dogs were placed in cages in the cargo section while others rode in the passenger cabin, where they barked and wagged their tails. "

Attention: This was NOT the only flight - this man has been paying to fly dogs out from LA, MS and TX for weeks! It is impossible to count how many dogs this man and his wife have saved.

The news coming in from all rescuers is the same, 80% - 90% of all dogs rescued are testing positive for heartworm. This is a condition that results in a horrible death if not treated. Most dogs rescued were not spayed or neutered.

Apparently, Pit Bull fighting was very prevalent in New Orleans. Many of the Pit Bulls have obvious scars from fighting. Shelters and rescue groups are reporting break-ins and thefts of Pit Bulls. Shelters that we have spoken with have refused to take in Pit Bulls because they can not afford to hire security guards to protect the dogs from being stolen during the night.

It is truly a miracle, but rescuers are still finding pets that have survived after all this time!

A Rottweiler pushed out an air-conditioning unit and ate pigeons that flew in opening; three cats open kitchen cabinet doors and munch on Ramon noodles while waiting for rescuers to come save them. They are still out there, waiting to be rescued, doing what they have to do to survive.

You can still help rescue! There are 1,708 addresses that still need to be checked for stranded animals. If you can help, go now!

Morning meetings will now be held at 7:30 am at:

Southern Animal Foundation
1823 Magazine St
New Orleans, LA

You will need to sign up each morning with your contact phone number so they can reach you throughout the day as needed. They will continue assigning maps with rescue & feed/water locations.

Dog Detective has set up contacts for rescue operations throughout New Orleans to help people find their pets. If you believe that your pet went through one of these locations, please send an email and Dog Detective volunteers will help you track down your pet!

Contact a Dog Detective volunteer if you think your pet may have gone through one of these locations:

Rescue Location	Pets Rescued From
La Mar Dixon 9039 S. Saint Landry Road Gonzales, LA	All of New Orleans
Winn Dixie 1400 Chef Mentuer New Orleans, LA	9th Ward All of New Orleans Slidell
YMCA Phillips Street New Orleans, LA	Garden District French Quarter Downtown Superdome I-10 All of New Orleans
Airlift Operations 20 planes of pets flown to safety	St. Bernard Parish - Camp Lucky Winn Dixie Group LaMar Dixon Pasado's, Raceland

Rescued dog "Dorothy", a six year old female Rottweiler, is at the Metairie Small Animal Clinic and needs some help with her vet bills! Dorothy has heartworm, hookworm, pneumonia and megaesophagus.

Donations for Dorothy's vet bills will be handled by Brandy at:
From The Animal Heart Rescue, Texas
If you can help, please donate:

Dorothy is being treated by:

Dr. Chris Fabacher
Metarie Small Animal Clinic
101 Metairie Road
Metairie, LA 70005
504-835-4266

Dorothy's adoption will be handled by From the Heart Rescue. If you are interested in adopting Dorothy after she has recovered, please contact Brandy

All rescue requests were given to the LASPCA on Oct 14th, through the Chameleon software system.

PetFinder has also been given updated records on all rescue requests, and should have information available through their website shortly.

Dog Detective will now focus all of our efforts on reuniting owners with their pets.

"We are in the lower ninth ward, which is restricted. We had three rescue vehicles and five rescuers. An SPCA truck drove by, five minutes later we were surrounded by three NOPD cars. The NOPD (who were great!) told us that the LASPCA called to have us kicked out."

Dorothy is doing much better! She is keeping food down and didn't cough at all when she went for a little walk today.

Donations for Dorothy's vet bills will be handled by Brandy at:
From The Heart Animal Rescue, Texas
http://fthar.org/

If you can help, please donate:

New Orleans pet owners come home to find their starving Doberman near death but still alive after seven weeks. Most of us would be overjoyed but not these people, they decided to put her on the curb with the trash. Luckily rescuers got a call from someone who saw it and the Doberman was saved and is now being treated at the vets.

Update 10/21/05: Person that reported the dog now saying they don't want to get in trouble and that the dog was left in the yard. Either way, the dog is doing Ok now and being treated at the vet hospital.

Now you can call the LASPCA to check and see if your pet has been rescued. They have all of the updated records from SPCA, Humane Society and PetFinder. 1-800-745-9151

For having the foresight and intelligence, to provide shelter for Florida's pets during hurricane Wilma.

Dorothy has gained seven pounds and is doing much better! They have found food that she likes and her coughing has subsided.

Special thanks to the team at Metairie Small Animal Clinic for taking such good care of her!

Donations for Dorothy's vet bills, as well as her adoption, will be handled by Brandy at:
From The Heart Animal Rescue, Texas
http://fthar.org/

If you can help, please donate:

When Katrina first stuck we put out a call for volunteers and hundreds of you responded. You donated supplies, flew to New Orleans to help rescue, started non-profits and set up temporary triage units and shelters in the city. Many of you worked non-stop, day after day, doing everything within your power to help the pets left behind. You offered your businesses, time, money, and opened your homes to help the pets left stranded because of Katrina. We can not begin to express our gratitude and admiration for your kindness. On behalf of all the pets stranded by Katrina, thank you. It has been an honor to work with you, and to know you.

Everyone says the same thing about Dorothy, "She is so sweet! Rescued by Larry from Katrina (thanks Larry!), Dorothy has spent the last three weeks at the vets recovering from her ordeal. It's a miracle that she has survived, it was touch and go there for a while. If you scroll down this page you can see the condition she was in when Larry rescued her.

Dorothy is all better now and ready to start her new life, please let us know if you are interested in adopting her. You can see her page here: Dorothy's Web Page

Dorothy needs special care due to a medical condition (she needs to be fed in a certain way). We think it would be best if someone were home with her. Special thanks to David from 1-800-save-a-pet.com for paying Dorothy's vet bills!

Let's find her a good home!!

She has found a new home in Maine. Thank you to Lisa - her fabulous foster mom - for taking care of her while she waited to find a new home.

Dorothy has made a FULL recovery but is still waiting to be adopted!

Even Dorothy's vet called it a "miracle". "This dog has not only recovered, but she is thriving." said her vet, Dr. Chris Fabacher.

Dorothy is still patiently waiting for the right home. Please let us know if you are interested in adopting her. You can see her page here: Dorothy's Web Page

Let's find her a good home!! After all she has been through she deserves it!

All Katrina dogs that previously tested Heartworm negative must be retested now.

There is an incubation period of between 6-9 months during which a dog that is infected with deadly heartworm disease will test negative.

This means that dogs that became infected last summer would have tested negative at the time they were transported out of the gulf region, and even at the time of placement, but may, in fact be harboring heartworms.

Contact your veterinarian because this disease is fatal and potentially contagious:

Any dog that previously tested heartworm negative must be retested now.
Any dog that previously tested heartworm positive should have started treatment by now.
Any dog that has completed treatment for heartworm disease needs to be retested 4-6 months after completion.

Please forward this to all appropriate parties.

Paula Kislak, DVM.

http://darkwaterrising.com

Find a theater: http://darkwater.bravenewtheaters.com/

There are hundreds of dedicated animal rescuers that DID NOT get credit in this film, and some people came off looking a lot better than they should have BUT it does show what really happened to the animals and that is what is important.

The Winn Dixie rescuers were made up of a group of people that were told by HSUS that they were not needed. They all found themselves in NOLA ready, willing and able to help and told to go home. We were on the phone with Larry giving him directions to Lamar Dixon when he was turned away - we heard it. These people took it upon themselves to help the animals at great emotional, financial, physical and psychological cost to themselves.

No, the rescuers at Winn Dixie were not good at paperwork and if they had the choice of sitting down and filling out a form or heading back out to rescue a starving dog, they chose to head back out and rescue. We can tell you that they did try to keep records in the beginning but it just wasn't feasible given the situation. They were running off generators, sleeping on pavement and without an internet connection - half the time they couldn't even get their cell phones to work. There isn't anyone that stressed the importance of reuniting the pets with their owners more than we did, but this was a disaster. Everyone had trouble keeping records, Lamar Dixon lost thousands of records.

We know for a fact that Larry rescued animals from 6am until 2am almost every day for three months straight. He'd see dogs dead from starvation or drowned because the dog was on a two foot chain hooked up to a fence, chained under a house or locked in a bathroom with no food or water. The dog in the film had been locked in a bathroom for more than a month, with no food or water, and it's collar(w/o tags) was still was still tight on it's neck - that is why he took it off and threw it. He saw things like this over and over again. Things like that take a toll on any animal lover. The people that went to NOLA to help were compassionate, sensitive souls to begin with or they would not have gone. Some of the volunteer rescuers "cracked" just days after arriving in NOLA. It was an extremely stressful situation. Many animal rescuers went days without sleep. The fact that Larry hung on for three months and was able to save as many animals as he did is nothing short of a miracle. If we had to guess, we'd say he saved close to a thousand animals on his own.

There was no "wink, wink" we'll just keep these dogs. Most of the dogs that the Winn Dixie people rescued were Pit Bulls. For people that don't know anything about Pit Bulls, they are the hardest dogs to place. Especially the ones from NOLA that had all been trained to fight and were heart worm positive. We got calls constantly, "Help, I have 20 Pit Bulls where can I take them - Lamar Dixon turned me away". "I have a Chihuahua with it's eye popped out and HSUS says it's not serious enough to take." "Help, we need a vet" "Help, I have 100 Pit Bulls" We could go on and on. We got calls NON-STOP for months from rescuers looking for places to take animals because Lamar Dixon was full and turned them away. They were not "stealing" pets, they were desperately trying to find places to take them. They had to drive an hour one way to get the animals to Lamar Dixon and an hour back after they had been turned away. That was two hours out of their day that could have been used to rescue more dogs, finally they gave up trying to get rescued dogs into Lamar. All of the rescued animals would have gone to Lamar Dixon if the HSUS would have taken them - they didn't, they turned them away. At that point what should they have done? Stopped rescuing? Or find some place to take them? They chose to keep rescuing and send the animals to whoever would take them. At that stage in the crisis, reuniting the animals with their owners was not the top priority - getting them out of the city, to some place safe, was.

We do not know all of the people that rescued out of Winn Dixie but the ones we do know did not steal anyone's pet. We know because when they would find a dog with a tag, they would call us to try to find the owner.

Yes, there were some people that took it upon themselves to take the animals home with them, not caring whether or not they ever found the owner. We don't condone it but we can understand it. Animal rescuers would be in homes feeding pets when an owner would return, take their television and leave their dog. Another owner came home, found his dog close to death from starvation and decided to put it on the curb with the trash. Rescuers found Pit Bull puppies scarred from fights. We know these things happened because we were on the phone with the rescuer at the time. You don't have to see things like this too many times before you decide to take matters into your own hands. Were they right? We can't say they were wrong.

Yes, there were owners that had no choice but to leave their pet. They were told by rescuers that the LASPCA was right behind them and would get their dog. Some people's dogs jumped of their roof and were lost in the flood. People were forced to leave their dogs with the sheriff. Many people were seriously injured themselves. There are definitely people that deserve to have their pets returned. After all of the loss they have suffered, the additional loss of their pet is not something they should have to endure. Some of these people will probably never be reunited with their pet and we feel for them more than you know. But the sad, undeniable fact is that there were also many people that just left their pets to die. Those pets would have died a slow, painful death from starvation if it weren't for the rescuers like Larry. We think those pets were very happy to be rescued by Larry and the people at Winn Dixie.