HURRICANE KATRINA: Bay Area Response
Airlift brings stranded animals to Bay Area
Pooches and cats orphaned by storm get temporary shelter
- Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, September 12, 2005
About 50 furry evacuees from Louisiana arrived in the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon. And, 1,000 more are on the way.
While human survivors of Hurricane Katrina have trickled into the Bay Area on their own, animal lovers have organized a major airlift of cats and dogs orphaned by the storm.
The first group of nervous and weary travelers left Baton Rouge on Sunday on a chartered Continental Airlines plane. The plane flew first to San Diego, where it dropped off 50 dogs, and then to San Francisco International Airport, where it delivered approximately 30 pooches and 20 kittens, said officials from the Marin Humane Society, which is helping shelter the animals.
"Their future will definitely be brighter than their past,'' said Diane Allevato, executive director of the Marin Humane Society. A dozen other Bay Area shelters have also agreed to assist in the relief effort.
Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeleine, paid the estimated $50,000 fee to charter the jet on Sunday, and donors are being sought to fund the transportation later this week for another 3,000 animals, with 1,000 each going to the Bay Area, San Diego and Houston.
Madeleine Pickens' sister, Christine Penrod, of San Diego, was on Sunday's furry flight and said the Pickenses got involved after hearing that Louisiana animal shelters were overflowing with abandoned animals. Some existing shelters had to be shut down due to floods, and the remaining ones were jammed with animals orphaned by the storm. The situation is expected to grow worse as relief workers gradually pick up more animals wandering the streets of New Orleans or find them trapped in homes, she said.
"They really need to be rescued,'' said Penrod, one of the airlift organizers. She stepped off the plane carrying a brown cocker spaniel. Some of the dogs traveled in the cargo section, while others traveled in plastic carriers in the plane's passenger compartment.
The plane was greeted by camera crews, several dozen animal shelter workers and a dozen trucks labeled with signs marked "Operation Orphans of the Storm" on the tarmac near the south gate of the airport.
Volunteers and staff of the Marin Humane Society and the Sacramento SPCA photographed and tagged the animals and took them back to their local shelters. Agency representatives said they hope to place the animals in foster families, and put them up for adoption if the pets' owners cannot be found.
There were originally supposed to be as many as 200 dogs on the plane, including 150 earmarked for San Francisco. But Penrod said Louisiana state officials blocked most of the animals rescued from the hurricane from being taken out of state, citing the need to quarantine the animals for 30 days, in case they are ill.
Despite the quarantine order, T. Boone Pickens personally drove a flatbed truck to the makeshift shelter in Gonzales, La., where he helped load the truck with several dozen animals and took them to the airport, Penrod said.
The quarantine order was canceled later that day, said Marin Humane Society spokeswoman Sheri Cardo.
Some of the animals on the flight also came from a regular shelter that was overloaded. But those animals had all been orphaned before the hurricane struck, Penrod said.
Still, the flight was mostly empty.
"There are 120 more animals that should be here," Penrod said.
Andrew Rowan, executive vice president of operations for the Humane Society of the United States, estimated there may be 50,000 or more additional dogs or cats in New Orleans that must be rescued and brought to the Gonzales shelter.
"It's a tremendous logistical operation to provide the care that these animals need," he told the Associated Press.
Another Humane Society official, Dave Pauli, told the news service that the makeshift shelter in Gonzales is "bursting at the seams."
Penrod said some of the animals brought to the Bay Area may be sick, because they have been crammed into overloaded or temporary shelters. At least one animal on Sunday's plane was rushed immediately to an animal hospital.
The flight otherwise went smoothly, flight attendants said.
"The ride was great,'' said Kathryn Glab, a Continental flight attendant who was walking an excited beagle after exiting the aircraft.
Asked if she'd ever been on a plane full of animals before, Glab said she'd once been on a flight full of football players. "These were better."
The Marin Humane Society said people who want to help with the rescue efforts should contact their local shelters, many of which have agreed to take in some of the 1,000 animals expected this week. The shelters will probably need money, foster homes and volunteers to care for the animals, said Allevato of the Marin Humane Society.
"There'll be plenty of work to go around,'' she said.
Although national animal rescue organizations have raised millions of dollars for Katrina, none of that money will go to Bay Area animal shelters caring for the animals brought here, said John Reese, chief operating officer of the Marin Humane Society.
The shelters plan to hold on to the dogs for at least 30 days before offering them up for adoption, to give the owners a chance to claim them. Pictures and information about the pets will be posted at
http://www.petfinder.com.
In addition to funding the airlift, the Pickenses have also given money to help human relief efforts. Pickens and employees at his oil company, BP Capital, recently pledged $5 million to the American Red Cross.
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