Government not doing enuff to help poor pets/animals due to Katrina! YOU can HELP!

THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!!! This just makes me FURIOUS! Can't the government just clean up their act and just start HELPING in a TIMELY MANNER???

PLEASE CONTACT THE GOVERNMENT LEADERS TO GET THEM TO HELP WITH ANIMAL RESCUES... You can get more info and contact info at this link. https://community.hsus.org/campaign/...rnmentresponse

Dear Pamela,

On Wednesday, one of our Disaster Animal Response Teams in New Orleans rescued a St. Bernard from a rooftop – a dog they described as the most emaciated animal they had ever seen in all their years of handling animals. The veterinarian who treated the dog was shocked that the animal, who weighed just 40 pounds, was still alive.

Who helped us rescue this animal? It was several National Guardsmen, who heeded our rescuersâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] pleas to take them through the water on a tank so they could get up on the roof to save the dog.

But the troopsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] actions were not ordered by the National Guard – nor by the White House, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, or the state of Louisiana. In fact, despite our repeated requests, none of these entities has formally agreed to marshal their ground forces to help rescue the pets and other animals slowly starving to death in the affected areas.

At a press conference just a few hours ago, I implored the federal government to come up with the nation's first animal rescue plan. Now, I am writing to ask you to give them the same message: Please call or email President Bush and other officials today and urge them to help us before itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s too late.

Time is running out for these animals. Every hour that passes means more pets, locked behind closed doors in the disaster zone, will die of starvation. Our teams are working as hard as they can to reach as many pets as they can - and as we reported to you on Wednesday, weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve rescued thousands. But there are thousands more.

At this 11th hour, when so many lives are at stake, we are asking you to help. I urge you to contact these government officials today and ask them to help rescue animals before it is too late. Please click here to call or send an email to President Bush and other federal and state officials who have the power to order National Guardsmen and other responders to assist with food drops, help supply our own operations, and do whatever else it takes to save animals.

One of our rescuers said it best: “We should not have to rely on the compassionate instincts of individual Guardsmen to rescue these animals. We need the full commitment of the government.â€

Members of Congress have also been calling on President Bush and the federal agencies to actively assist with direct animal rescue. With most of the human victims of the catastrophe removed from the city, itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s not too late to save animalsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] lives. Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s time for the government to recognize the incredible bond between people and their pets, and step in to help.

On behalf of the animals and our disaster teams, thank you.

Sincerely,

Wayne Pacelle
President & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States

Thank you for the information. I will write e-mails and make phone calls right now.

Pamela,
I appreciate your passion and I entirely understand your anger.

The government had many problems responding to this disaster because it was so overwhelming.
The President can only do so much in a situation like this and the only way he can override the Governor of a state is to invoke the "insurrection act" and that has to be with the blessing of Congress, they can't even balance a checkbook!

Sadly, in situations like these, the choice must be made between saving people and saving animals and from a political standpoint, you would have a difficult time explaining to the relatives of a storm victim why scarce resources were dedicated to saving animals when there were still people who needed help.
According to some of what I saw on television, I could justify saving animals before I could justify saving some of the people who were looting and running wild in the street.
The animals looked civilized by comparison in many cases.
I would say to them, "Enjoy the plasma TV you looted, but saving this animal is a more worthwhile endevour than saving YOU would be".
Of course, they might just shoot at you first.

But I would be reluctant to trust HSUS with helping anyone but themselves. They're friends with PeTA and I don't think that PeTA could be called a friend of the animals.
Here's Why:
According to this story:
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories...287&ran=142651

Our "friends" at PeTA is in New Orleans "saving" companion animals lost, strayed or abandoned in the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina.

This concernes me because PeTA is claiming that they will take animals to Norfolk, Virginia for the purpose of adoption.

Gee, haven't we heard that before?

Wasn't it PeTA that told this to very same thing to animal shelters in North Carolina only to be later discovered dumping the bodies of the animals they "rescued" from these shelters into dumpsters behind a grocery store in Ahoskie, NC?
Apparantly, these "rescuers" had allegedly euthanized these animals (in violation of North Carolina law it is also alleged) and had been doing it for quite some time.
The story is here:
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories...098&ran=179991

PeTA has also tried to advance their own agenda using analogys to racisim and anti-semitisim in recent months and been shut down on both occasions by those pesky things PeTA can't stand-FACTS!
Story here:
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_.../headline/2867

FURTHER MORE:
A prominent U.S. charity is boasting that it has raised over $5.5 million in the past week to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's not the American Red Cross (a very worthwhile recipient of your donations). It's the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), a gigantic animal rights group whose $113 million in assets is apparently not enough to provide adequately for pets displaced by Katrina. For $5.5 million, you'd expect HSUS to be flying rescue choppers over New Orleans, plucking thousands of puppies and kittens from rooftops. But the group reports in a press release: "So far, The HSUS has helped to rescue more than 300 animals in Louisiana and Mississippi, including dogs, cats, ferrets, and a seal."

CBS News reports that the Houston SPCA has rescued nearly 1,000 animals and sent them to a temporary shelter near the Astrodome. The Houston Chronicle reports that the Louisiana SPCA is handling an additional 700. According to the Guidestar nonprofit directory, the two organizations' combined resources are less than 8 percent of HSUS's $95 million annual budget. And the Petfinder service notes that the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine in Baton Rouge is sheltering another 600 animals -- without anything close to a $5.5 million payoff.

Presuming that HSUS's claim of helping "more than 300" animals means somewhere between 300 and 320, that translates to more than $17,000 for every animal rescued. The Salvation Army (another worthwhile charity) writes that a $100 donation "will feed a family of four for two days [and] provide two cases of drinking water." Perhaps HSUS has decided that a ferret's life is worth 160 times the assistance required by its owner and his entire family.

And HSUS isn't stopping with ferrets. The Decatur (AL) Daily News reports that shortly after Katrina hit, HSUS representatives began calling Alabama newspaper reporters to find out how many chickens needed help. "They wanted to come here and capture any chickens running loose and homeless," state veterinarian Tony Frazier told the Daily News. "They were going to find homes for the chickens."

Not all animal rights groups are angling for a hurricane-sized payday in Katrina's wake. Some, like the PETA-affiliated Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), are just looking for cheap publicity. The quasi-medical PCRM issued a news statement on Sunday that criticized relief workers for "forcing evacuees to choose between their possessions and their companion animals" and warned that leaving pets behind is against the law in Louisiana. While charities like the American Medical Association and AmeriCares are urgently alleviating human suffering, PCRM -- as usual -- seems more concerned about animals than people.

Personally, I have donated to the ASPCA and if I had more, I would give it to the L.V.M.A. as well.
The problem is, we have never had a disaster like this and I don't think that the Federal, State or local government were even close to being properly prepared for it as a storm of this magnatude hasn't been seen since Galveston in the early 1900's.
We are writing the book as we go in this one.

On an upbeat note, we do have a chance to start over in New Orleans and maybe we can finally convince people how important having a personal disaster plan really is and after seeing all the animals that died as a result of this storm, maybe we can use this as a tool to convince people to spay and neuter their pets.

First- of course people should be rescued! However some ppl refused 2 evacuate without pets and many CARING representatives of our government refused to help these people with pets so these poor people with animals had to wait much longer to be rescued OR finally abandon pets.

As it has been said repeatedly in news articles, reports,etc this is not a search and rescue anymore since most of the people have been rescued already. So why can't these people give animal rescue org helping hands when they can?? Remember many people have lost everything except pets. Should they deal with more trauma of knowing pets left behind are starving and dying horribly?? Remember some animal orgs have limited power and couldn't break into homes even if they could see animals that needed help. I just read today that 1 rescue org-i think noahs wish or spca FINALLY got authorized to nreak doors down to save animals!

I didn't know hsus is afflicated with PETA and personally don't see how that is related to this issue. My issue is that these animal rescue orgs are NOT getting enough help from our government. How many times do we need to hear that our CARING government is not helping people or animals until much later?? I say enough is enough!
I know from a friend who's in military and have some friends helpin in new orleans who tried to help animals during free time and their superiors chewed them out! One friend flew rescue operations in new orleans and rescued someone along with his or her pet and he got demoted for that even after the guy said the person refused to leave his pet behind!
I say something is wrong with that!