Animal Agency Rescues, Reunites, Rehomes
You can take a look at their most recent photos from New Orleans, courtesy of Kelly Harrington, field commander for the agency’s Search and Rescue Operations and director of their Disaster Response Services at their website, aspca.org.
As of Sept. 29th search and rescue resumed in New Orleans. With water and land rescue teams back in the field the ASPCA and other relief groups are busier than ever dealing with the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes. While the LA SPCA closes in on a new location where they will be able to resume “normal” operations, the urgent work of rescue, triage, and temporary sheltering continues at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center.
ASPCA and the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) will help with expenses to reunite families and their pets.
Starting Sept. 30th the Angelina Expo Center in Lufkin, TX began serving as the new staging center for Rita’s animal evacuees. In parts of Texas downed trees and power lines are making it hard for ASPCA and other relief responders to access those areas but efforts are ongoing and they’re assisting wherever needed, they say.
In a recent email to ASPCA, Karen Loggins, a volunteer from Sacramento, CA who worked at Lamar-Dixon for a week and also rescued 35 stranded animals, recalled “some very sad, scary, and few content moments.”
On Sept. 23rd a call center for matching foster pets went live through the ASPCA’s website. The foster hotline number is 800-485-5152.
In lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina the agency and humane groups nationwide urged Rita evacuees in Texas and Louisiana to make immediate plans for their pets should they have to separate. Upon receiving a request from an evacuee call center operators access the Emergency Animal Response Network (EARN) database and enter the evacuees pet foster needs, including city, species of pet, number of pets; etc. Already, thousands of offers to foster dogs, cats, birds, and even horses have been entered into the database. The foster agreements noted in the Petfinder agreement are modeled on the national foster program developed by HSUS and one other agency.
Owners looking for pets may also access the Petfinder website (petfinder.com).
As of Sept. 21st the ASPCA had awarded just over $1 million in grants and emergency funding and pledged gifts bringing the total to $3.5 million. The ASPCA said thanks to the kindness and generosity of their supporters they can honestly say they are honored to be able to make a difference in a very meaningful way.
As of Sept. 21st the ASPCA had raised over $9,000,000 for animals impacted by disasters like Katrina. They are granting money weekly based on requests from the groups or their reaching out to offer help. Efforts continue to grow.
