A friend of mine just got back from a trip to Mississippi and Louisiana where she helped with the animal triage centers down there. Although she has a cat, she is a dog person, actually trying to get her own business up and running around dog training and counciling for dog behavior issues.
She gives a huge thumbs up to organizations like HSUS and Best Friends for all the work they are doing down there. They have set up centers where volunteers go out each day and do search and rescue, bring the animals back to the center where they are treated for their health and emotional problems, and when stabilized shipped out to other shelters all over the country to help locate their owners or ultimately be adopted out.
The triage center she was at in New Orleans was set up at a school. The dogs were in the gym and other large areas and cats kept in classrooms. They had an intensive care ward where the really bad cases were treated, isolation rooms for the poor dogs that were aggressive (fear), and rows and rows of cages to hold the animals prior to transport.
She told me of cases of many of the dogs she treated at the center. She chose to stay there and help out over going for search and rescue. A poor chow that was deaf and blind in one eye that was aggressive upon entry was eating out of her hand after a few days of love and TLC. A poor beagle that could hardly walk was nursed back to health and out running around after a few days. She fought hard on behalf of 3 dogs that were kept isolated because they bit someone while being rescued.
They would stop search and rescue when the center was too full. Best Friends & HSUS would arrange transport out and they would resume operations to bring more animals in. They were still actively finding animals as of late last week when my friend left to come home.
My friend said that there was a lot of criticism being laid on these organizations and was angry about it. The nature of the catastrophy was apparent as she toured the city and she was amazed that any group could pull together the organization needed to handle the disaster of this scale.
She slept on floors until someone found an air mattress for her. One night they found an open doctor's office lobby and crashed on the couches. For showers, they went down to the Superdome and got into the shower trucks set up by FEMA. Life is not easy for these volunteers. Things were hard with each deceased animal that was brought in.
I am totally envious of my friend. I would have loved to get down there and help out first hand. Just wanted to share her stories with fellow animal lovers.
She gives a huge thumbs up to organizations like HSUS and Best Friends for all the work they are doing down there. They have set up centers where volunteers go out each day and do search and rescue, bring the animals back to the center where they are treated for their health and emotional problems, and when stabilized shipped out to other shelters all over the country to help locate their owners or ultimately be adopted out.
The triage center she was at in New Orleans was set up at a school. The dogs were in the gym and other large areas and cats kept in classrooms. They had an intensive care ward where the really bad cases were treated, isolation rooms for the poor dogs that were aggressive (fear), and rows and rows of cages to hold the animals prior to transport.
She told me of cases of many of the dogs she treated at the center. She chose to stay there and help out over going for search and rescue. A poor chow that was deaf and blind in one eye that was aggressive upon entry was eating out of her hand after a few days of love and TLC. A poor beagle that could hardly walk was nursed back to health and out running around after a few days. She fought hard on behalf of 3 dogs that were kept isolated because they bit someone while being rescued.
They would stop search and rescue when the center was too full. Best Friends & HSUS would arrange transport out and they would resume operations to bring more animals in. They were still actively finding animals as of late last week when my friend left to come home.
My friend said that there was a lot of criticism being laid on these organizations and was angry about it. The nature of the catastrophy was apparent as she toured the city and she was amazed that any group could pull together the organization needed to handle the disaster of this scale.
She slept on floors until someone found an air mattress for her. One night they found an open doctor's office lobby and crashed on the couches. For showers, they went down to the Superdome and got into the shower trucks set up by FEMA. Life is not easy for these volunteers. Things were hard with each deceased animal that was brought in.
I am totally envious of my friend. I would have loved to get down there and help out first hand. Just wanted to share her stories with fellow animal lovers.
